The Gateway of Mysteries
by LuckyFelix
Summary: In 1879 the Goblins of Gringotts found an ancient device in the Giza Plateau. In 1999, the device opens a gateway to the greatest adventure in the history of the Wizarding World. AU Stargate/Harry Potter, Post Deathly Hallows
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harry Potter or Stargate, I make no money off of either and am simply writing this for my own enjoyment.

**Author's Note:** I have tried to keep as close to canon of both franchises as possible, there may however be a few things here or there that I've switched about somewhat to fit the story. Other than the obvious AU stuff, of course. In Stargate I have used not only SG-1/SGA/SGU and the movies but also the RPG rulebooks, especially for information regarding the background of the Goa'uld.

On another note, don't expect updates to be too frequent. This story came about for two reasons, one was that I needed to take a break every so often from my primary work (Harry Potter and the Eccentricities of Death) and because the premier of SGU put me back in the Stargate mood. Also having read several interesting SG/HP stories recently (Isis' Bane by althor42, Space Haven by esama & Harry Potter the Next Great Adventure by shwilly) helped rekindle the desire to see this old plot bunny.

Lastly, thank you to my beta Vishal and the guys at DLP for all their help.

**The Gateway of Mysteries**

**758 B.C.**

**Hyperspace – Asgard Transport Vessel**

Archelaos of Medea was named Grand Mage by his people almost exactly three decades ago, he wasn't sure that it was quite the honour it should have been. It meant that he was the one who would oversee the death of his people, of his culture, of a once great civilization. The Furling Federation had once sprawled over many worlds, it had helped to nurture life in the galaxy and then it had helped to protect that life.

That was before the Plague came, the Great Death.

The Furlings, with all their mystical powers, were unable to stop it from ravaging their worlds. Their old brethren, the Nox, were just as powerless.

The two races had once been a single race called Arcanian, many many millennia ago, but their original homeworld, Magigea, became uninhabitable. There were many theories as to why this happened, the only thing the two could agree on was that science was their downfall. Therefore, it was that the Nox turned to nature and the Furlings turned to the mystical for answers. Their arcane powers that had once been the same began to differ, reflecting their new philosophy.

However neither could find the power to stop this plague, it seemed beyond all power. Their allies, the Asgard and Ancients worked feverishly to save them, and in the end, it was through the science of the Ancients that they were saved.

The revelation was cause for both races to rethink their prior positions on science. Eventually both accepted the return of science but within their philosophy of mysticism and nature, for both still believed that science for merely the sake of science would again lead to their downfall.

The Nox would retreat back to their new homeworld, Gaia, and immersed themselves in nature. They live now as only a myth, hidden away in their invisible flying cities. Their belief that nature will preserve their race has led them to shy away from anything that could harm nature, most especially war. They would not fight even to save themselves, though admittedly, their vast powers of healing make that somewhat less deadly than it may otherwise be.

The Furlings likewise retreated back to their homeworld, Hecataeus, to regroup and rebuild their civilization. Hecataeus was a vibrant and beautiful world full of life and full of the mystical, a world where the extraordinary was ordinary. The Ancients called it 'The World of Wonders' for the many amazing things that lived there, not the least of which were the Furlings themselves.

The Furlings would have been content to stay there and rebuild, but it was not meant to be as a new plague arose, but this one was not a disease of the body or mind. This one was a race of beings intent on destroying or enslaving all life in the galaxy. They were called the Goa'uld, a parasitic race that took over the bodies of other beings and forced them to do their bidding.

Originally, the Goa'uld made hosts out of a rather ugly and primitive beasts, which eventually were named Unas. They made tough and powerful hosts, but lacked in many other areas that prevented the Goa'uld from realizing their true potential.

As the Ancients slowly faded away, many of them succeeding in their quest to ascend, the task of defending the innocents fell to the Asgard and Furlings. However, a major war was just what the Furling civilization did not need. The two sides fought each other off and on over the course of many thousands of years, but the Asgard and Furlings could never press their advantage against the less advanced and less clever Goa'uld. The Asgard resided in a separate galaxy and was forced to come to terms with their own problems while the Furlings were too few.

Soon however, a change came, the Goa'uld found a new host: humans. Their human hosts proved to be far superior and all too soon they were back to conquering the galaxy, only this time they were far more dangerous.

Soon the Furlings were looking to alternative means of saving their race. Some suggested that they reunite with their long lost brothers, the Nox, but it was not meant to be. Ultimately, it was he, Archelaos of Medea, who came up with the idea to follow the example of the Ancients and integrate with the humans of Terra. The two races were compatible; it was even found that humans were capable of a limited form of the Furlings powerful magic. It was a way for their race to survive in some form, even if not exactly what they wanted.

Luckily, the two races looked remarkably similar, which was probably one of the reasons they could procreate. The differences would be hard to notice upon first sight by humans; they were taller and more agile than humans with rather angular features and long oval shaped ears, not to mention that they had a much greater lifespan. Other than that, they were very similar races, aside from the great magical powers possessed by Furlings.

They were not simply bringing themselves however, they brought thousands of specimens of the various species of animal that inhabited Hecataeus and the Nox even provided them some various plant species from Gaia. It would be a blend of Ancient and Arcane that would inhabit this world.

Archelaos's thoughts turned from the past to the present as the Asgard transport ship dropped out of hyperspace before what was to be his people's new home. He vaguely felt an alien presence walk up beside him, but he did not acknowledge it, he was staring instead at their final destination.

"Terra Atlantus." The name of the planet that had once been capital to the greatest race in the galaxy, the Ancient Ones, the saviours of his own race.

"Yes. Are your people ready, Grand Mage?" Archelaos looked down on the naked grey figure and nodded. They had been preparing for many years now so they had better be ready; there would be no turning back.

"With Ra's Stargate buried the Goa'uld are unlikely to visit this planet any time soon, they have enough slaves to have no need to return here." The Asgard commander nodded, Terra had no resources of any use to the Goa'uld aside from humans, and they already had plenty of those. "We'll cast some wards around the gate to keep anybody unpleasant away from it."

Archelaos looked over at his companion and smiled sadly, "we've cast wards upon the gate at Hecataeus, any who are not of our race will find a most unpleasant welcome should they attempt to travel there via the Stargate, especially if they are Goa'uld. If they come by ship they will find nothing, all has been destroyed. The last vestiges of our society are hidden away deep underground, we hope that our descendants will one day return."

Vili, the Asgard commander, nodded and informed him that they were ready to begin beaming the groups down.

Archelaos lifted his hand and with the slightest gesture summoned a small lightly glowing ball shaped object to him. Once it was in his hands, or more accurately hovering just above them, a very detailed representation of Terra showed up and he began going over where each group of Furlings would be sent.

They were to be sent to areas where they would arouse the least suspicion because of their looks. The humans of Terra, like their Ancient ancestors and like the Furlings, were diverse in their appearance.

"Goodbye my friend, perhaps our descendants shall meet you again one day and aid the Asgard as you have aided us." Vili merely nodded before beaming Archelaos and several others down to the surface of the planet on an island that would one day be known as Britain.

"Well Archelaos, we're here, shall we find some cute native girls and procreate in the name of the Furling Federation?" grinned his long time friend Euthymios, who despite over a three centuries of life remained a child at heart. Archelaos rather thought that was why he enjoyed his company so much; it was youthful.

"Yeah, I suppose we should get to business soon, eh?" he smiled, though the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "Don't forget to learn the local language, Euthymios, I doubt they speak the Ancient tongue." Archelaos ran a hand through his unruly jet black hair, a nervous habit of his, before setting off towards the local village with the small group.

"Oh, and we'll need to change our names to something more native." He received several nods in reply.

"Did you hear about Remus and Romulus?" Archelaos hadn't heard anything about the two, who he didn't really care for all that much. "They're planning to start themselves an entirely new civilization, in honour of the Ancients. Bizarre, eh? They'll speak the Ancient language and everything. I doubt it will catch on though; they're idiots. They'll probably kill each other, you know how they fight over everything."

Archelaos merely shrugged, everybody knew how those two got along, it was part of the reason he didn't like them. The idiots were destined to fail though, so he was unconcerned about their venture, they failed at everything. Then they fought over whose fault it was. Idiots.

**1879 A.D. – July 21**

**Planet: Earth – Giza Plateau, Egypt**

Being a goblin was never easy, you had to do your job and do it well or face the unpleasant consequences of failure. Ripfang was good though, he found the best treasures because he took the biggest risks and thankfully had a talent for knowing just which ones to take. Take, for example, his current project.

He found an anomaly in Giza, it was magic but it was magic like he'd never seen before, and boy was it powerful. Whatever it was hiding must be of great value to have been sealed away by some ancient wizards like this.

Or perhaps something other than wizards? Surely not wizards, no. Unfortunately, it wasn't goblin magic either. Ripfang didn't know if the Elves had resided here long ago, perhaps it could be their old magic? They were a powerful race when they chose to be; unfortunately, they had long ago lowered themselves to be the servants of wizards.

Ripfang found that to be rather disgusting.

His musings however were cut short by one of those lowly human types rushing into his tent, "Sir, we think we've got it sir!" He seemed delighted.

"It?" asked the old goblin who had no desire to begin guessing what 'it' was.

"We know how to break the wards sir!" Ripfang nodded and walked out to the site, the other goblins and wizards came as well.

Quite remarkably, it was a very simple procedure, the wizards simply needed to cast a relatively simple spell together at the same time to compensate for the power of the wards.

All things considered, it was a bit of a let down.

"Well, dig!" he ordered once the enchantments had been broken.

Spells were fired quickly to do just that until they ran into a set of heavy coverstones with a cartouche in the middle. The hieroglyphs on the coverstones were fairly simple even if the story they told was odd, but the ones on the cartouche and on the outer ring of the coverstones, they were no form of writing that he knew. Somehow though, Ripfang had a feeling he'd seen them somewhere, but he couldn't place it.

It was after they lifted the coverstones that they found something truly remarkable, a large ring made out of a metal that none of them had ever seen or heard of before. There was most definitely something very strange going on here; he just hoped that the goblins back at Gringotts would be as intrigued as he was.

Further digging located some sort of device, which seemed to be related to the ring, almost as if it controlled the large ring. Or gate, as he was starting to think of it. There was not much else around the ring, except some rather odd old fossils.

Ripfang wasn't sure what to think of his latest discovery, but he was certain that it was going to be one of his most important discoveries ever.

**1999 A.D. – August 14**

**Throne Room – Great Temple of Bast**

**Planet: Bubastis – Homeworld of the Goa'uld Bastet**

Bastet sat contentedly upon her throne, surrounded by her beloved kittens and many precious children, she was practically purring in contentment as she stretched about lazily in her throne. She had called off the manservants who had been fanning her as it was becoming chilly. Undoubtedly, a sandstorm was approaching, but Bastet was unconcerned, she had long ago procured technology to guard her people against that.

After all, sandstorms were the wrath of a God, thus it stood to reason that only a God could protect the people from them. Bastet was very protective, and her people loved her very much for that protection.

Aside from herself and the many children and manservants, the Bast Guard were to be found about the room, the elite force of Jaffa warriors that was composed completely of females was one of the most feared units in the galaxy. Rightly so, their extensive training in combat along with their deadly claws and ferocious war cries were enough to scare anybody, even other Goa'uld. The fact that they were all exceedingly beautiful was an added bonus; of course men were easily distracted.

It was as she lazed petting one of her favourite cats, a grumpy old ginger coloured cat that seemed in a perpetual bad mood, that she had a sudden thought. It was about time that she preformed one of her odd rituals that even she didn't understand why she did it.

Roughly every few hundred years she would have a couple of her more useless male servants dial the address for Tau'ri. She didn't expect that any of her minions would ever live after going through the gate, but it amused her greatly to see that they seemed to think it a great honour of some sort.

"Relana!" Her loyal and obedient First Prime immediately appeared before her. "It is time, I think, to select a few _worthy_ individuals to visit the Tau'ri, don't you think?" Her stress of the word worthy was enough to tell Relana that she needed to find two individuals with no family and no particular use. Many of the manservants about her temple were in fact husbands of her Bast Guard, and it would not do to be sending two of them to their doom.

"As you wish." The Jaffa bowed in pleasure and was off to instruct two particularly daft looking brutes to dial the address of the Tau'ri. They were thrilled beyond compare.

She did regret the loss of yet another communication sphere, but they were the only thing that would work in the event that they actually managed to make it to the other side.

It then came as something of a surprise when her First Prime Relana alerted her that they were receiving communication from the two men.

"My Lady Bastet! We have reached the Tau'ri!" He seemed inordinately proud of his ability to step through a Stargate.

"Za'dek! Describe the current environment," demanded Relana.

"We're in a room." Za'dek replied smartly. "A dark room," he then clarified.

Unfortunately they didn't get much more than that as several bright red flashes lit up the screen and the Jaffa disappeared.

Bastet was now curious, insanely curious, she had sent many servants to their death going to the Tau'ri, but now it seems that two have succeeded. Though they likely died at the hands of the Tau'ri whom she could only assume have advanced by leaps and bounds since defying Ra, the fact that they made it through the Stargate was significant. The Tau'ri must have finally unburied their gate, but why?

Did they perhaps think that they had progressed enough that they could further defy their Gods? Bright flashes of scarlet, some sort of energy weapon perhaps? Bastet knew that the Gatebuilders once resided on that planet, could the Tau'ri have possibly found some of their technology and figured it out? If so then it was a very troubling development.

Or did they simply progress on their own to a fairly advanced level? If so they were likely still not as advanced as the Goa'uld, and taking out two pathetic and surprised humans was certainly no way to gauge their current abilities.

"Miuty!" she called to her underling. Bastet, as a powerful and influential System Lord, had an impressive number of Underlords to do her bidding. She generally kept one of them near her at all times so that they may do anything that she deems beneath her, or too dangerous.

Miuty, Mafdet and Asthartet helped her govern her personal worlds of Bubastis, Tell Basta and Per-Bast respectively, as none of them had a domain of their own. Thus by virtue of administrating Bastet's seat of power Miuty was often tasked to do things such as what he was going to be asked to do now.

When the cat headed Goa'uld bowed before her she instructed him on the task she wanted complete, "Assemble a team of Jaffa, I want to know how much of a threat the Tau'ri have become. I am most curious as to why they do not feel the need to protect themselves as they once did. You are to secure the Stargate and observe their tactical and technology status and, if possible, capture a few and bring them back for me to speak with."

"As you wish, my Lady." As Bastet watched him stalk off to organize the expedition, she motioned for Relana to join her.

"Go to Taremu, I wish for Maahes presence immediately. Also, send somebody to Hatet to inform Hert-Ketit-s that her assistance will be required should Miuty bring back any prisoners." Relana bowed in acknowledgement, but did not immediately go off to do her tasks. Bastet raised a curious brow.

"My Lady," she breathed reverently, "it is only that I wish to remind you that Ptah is to do, as you requested, he should be here within the day."

"Ah, yes, very well. But it is imperative that Ptah know nothing of the developments with the Tau'ri, instruct the Jaffa that nobody is to speak of it while he is here." Ptah was a very old Goa'uld who has created nearly every Goa'uld ship that exists. It was not terribly often that he came up with any clever new ideas, but recently he had been hinting at something. He knew very well that she was far too curious and would eventually cave to his demands, but she couldn't help herself. She idly wondered if Ra already knew.

Ptah also happened to have been the consort of Sekhmet, Bastet's most hated rival. Of course, it wasn't so much a rivalry anymore seeing as Bastet had seen to her rival's banishment for treachery. Ptah had been greatly distressed when he learned of Sekhmet's villainy and Bastet had quickly been there to comfort him, having experienced the treachery of Anubis. Ever since then the two had formed a very cordial if not close relationship, with Ptah using her natural curiosity to test his creations and her using his creative brilliance to strengthen her own position.

If only Nefertum and Menhit, two of Sekhmet's old Underlords, could be so easily controlled.

"Hmm, while you are at it, send a messenger to Pakhet, he should have a report on Hak'tyl by now." The Jaffa quickly and gracefully made her way to do her Goddess' bidding, leaving Bastet to gently pet her favourite cat as she pondered this new development.

Bastet thought that perhaps now was the time to do some scheming. One thing Bastet could always use more of were good female Jaffa to join the Bast Guard, and Moloc may very well have given her a ready supply of them if the rumours she heard were true. She never cared much for Moloc and seeing as he had no strong allies that would stand against the Claws of Bast, her fleet, or the Bast Guard then it shouldn't be too hard to 'convince' him to agree to her demands.

Yawning widely the Goddess stretched like the feline she was before retiring to her personal chambers. Hopefully, Miuty would be ready to check in on the Tau'ri tomorrow.

**1999 A.D. – August 15**

**Gate Room – Department of Mysteries, Ministry of Magic**

**Planet: Earth – London, England**

Working as an Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries one sees quite a few odd thing, but what happened yesterday morning had to be one of the oddest that Edgar Chichester had ever seen.

It was all centred around a strange circular artefact that the DoM had acquired from the goblins. They had heard about it over a century ago from some of the wizards who were there when it was founded, and the Department had been interested in looking at it ever since. Unfortunately, the goblins were not so keen to be parted with it, until two years ago when they finally relented.

For a large sack of galleons, of course.

Now Edgar thought perhaps he understood why the goblins suddenly were willing to be parted with the strange and mysterious object.

They had been debating how to interpret the hieroglyphs on the coverstones when the ring, or Stargate as he now knew it to be, suddenly came to life. The Unspeakables rushed to the room that the Stargate was being kept in and found two oddly dressed men talking into a sphere of some sort.

They didn't waste time asking them what they were doing there or how the Stargate had activated, they just stupefied them before they could do anything.

Upon closer inspection the two men were humans and when awoken and under the influence of Veritaserum they admitted that they were from another planet and in the service of the Goddess Bastet. Of course, the Unspeakables had needed to find a person familiar with very very ancient Egyptian to talk with them, but luckily, they had one such person.

Damien Knowles happened to be the department's chief researcher in ancient cultures and was, after some work, able to communicate with the two men.

They didn't seem to be the cleverest blokes, but were able to tell them a good bit regarding the Stargate and the other device found near it, which was, as they guessed, a sort of dialling device. The two also provided some answers as to just what was out there in the galaxy. Apparently, there were various Gods, that dominated the galaxy with their vast fleets of starships. It seemed most of them took the form of Egyptian deities.

They managed to find out that one named Ra was apparently the leader; the two of them were servants of the Goddess known as Bastet. There were others, but neither really knew too much about them.

From the alien's descriptions, the God folk apparently had amazing divine powers and that left many Unspeakables wondering if they were wizards.

There were some cults, especially in Egypt but also in India, that worshipped the 'Old Gods' as the ones who brought magic. Bastet, according to Damien, was particularly worshipped because of the belief that she could control the Nundus, a large and deadly feline that terrorises the Sahara.

Perhaps there was something to it after all?

Regardless, Director Croaker had ordered them to keep guard in what was being called the 'Gate Room' in the event that any of the alien's friends decided to come for a visit. The two did admit that they came on the orders of Bastet and that they communicated with her before losing consciousness.

This, it turned out, was a wise move as Edgar's internal musings were cut short by the Stargate activating of its own accord. It was actually a rather beautiful thing, when the Stargate connected, until the strange cat-like beings began coming through. They were all quite obviously female except for one that had the face of a cat, the others being silvery and had a face eerily similar to a Nundus.

Their eyes all glowed a ferocious emerald that complemented the cloth parts of their armour and their exceptionally dangerous looking claws. Aside from the claws, each of the aliens carried a long staff like object, which they quickly pointed towards the wizards in the room who had been momentarily shocked into a stupor.

"Jaffa! Tal shak!" Whatever that meant, it was apparently their signal to attack as the silvery ones immediately leapt into action. The alien enemies unleashed an unearthly howl as they started firing some sort of explosive energy from the long staffs they carried. Edgar saw two wizards go down before the others began shielding in earnest.

Some of the attackers began closing in on the wizards in quick fluid motions, howling in otherworldly delight as they brought their vicious claws to bear upon the wizards or used their staffs as melee weapons. Edgar was able to get a reductor curse off at the gold headed one that seemed to be their leader, however he simply brought up some sort of shield that stopped the curse cold.

Edgar's efforts were rewarded by the painful sensation of having a set of deadly claws tearing across his face and chest before a blast from the staff of the leader impacted painfully in his gut. As he fell to the floor in agony, he saw and just barely heard the leader call out to his minions.

"Jaffa, kree! Shal tek!" The silvery ones, the Jaffa he supposed, immediately converged on their leader as one of them dialled an address into the gate. The wizards, who had been on the defensive from the beginning, seemed to finally have a chance to go on the offensive when the leader raised his left hand and an odd ripple of energy flew through the air and violently sent them all flying across the room.

As the world began to turn into darkness Edgar saw the Stargate connect and their enemies retreating through it with what appeared to be hostages. Edgar would never know anything more however.

**1999 A.D. – August 19**

**Interrogation Chambers – Great Temple of Bast**

**Planet: Bubastis – Homeworld of the Goa'uld Bastet**

Bastet looked down at the whimpering figure in distaste after having yet again used her kara kesh, or hand device, to torture the human.

"If you tell me what I want to know, human, I will make the pain go away. You can end it, all you must do is tell me about your kind, tell me why you unburied the Stargate." The tortured human only whimpered pathetically at her feet while the other glared at her in defiance.

"Your insolence will only earn your companion more pain, human." It did indeed, as she once again used the immense power of the ancient device to torture the wizard.

Miuty's attack on the Tau'ri had been a success as far as she was concerned; they brought back two humans, one of which spoke Goa'uld. A bit broken and old fashioned, but it was good enough for her to understand. He also reported that at least three of the Tau'ri are likely to have died, and several others were gravely injured. Apparently they technology prowess of the Tau'ri was not so great as she feared it could be.

Of the Jaffa, only two sustained any injuries with one of them receiving a very nasty cut along her thigh and the other a deadly blast to her chest. Both were healed by Bastet as a reward for their success.

Despite that, the interrogation was not going anywhere near as well as she had hoped it would. Bastet was now more curious than ever to learn what had become of the Tau'ri as the reports were peculiar at best and extremely disturbing at worst. They had no technology of any note except what seemed to be ordinary wooden sticks that they used to shoot some form of high powered energy or shield against staff blasts.

Bastet had examined the stick of the human she was now torturing and could not find any sort of noticeable technology, though it seemed to possess a subtle power of some sort.

Furthermore, Miuty and the Jaffa's description of their energy was reminiscent of enemies from the past.

Bastet had been around for some time, she had been there at Anubis' betrayal and the rise of Ra, she had been there during the wars against the Asgard, and she had been there in the battles against the other race, the Furlings. Something about the description of these humans reminded her of them and it was unsettling, as they had been a terrifying and tricky enemy before their previously unexplained disappearance. Perhaps now she had an explanation?

Returning her attention to the present, she ceased her torture, not wanting the human to go insane or die just yet.

"Perhaps you do not care for your friend? It seems that if I am to get results I may need to start inflicting pain on you. Tell me what I want to know, now, or the consequences will be most unpleasant." She smiled cruelly at that, certain that with the proper application of pain she could get what she wanted from him.

"You think torturing me to insanity will help you? I won't tell you anything!"

The Goa'uld's eyes flashed at the human's insolence, but she merely smiled a terrifying smile. "Oh, do not worry; I have something special planned for you. Something far more painful. I'm going to kill you in as painful a way as I can think of, and then when you are dead, I shall heal you, and we may begin again. I'm going to do this day after day after day until you tell me what I want to know."

Oddly, however, the human smiled and proclaimed, "Nobody can bring a person back from the dead. So kill me and be done with it, I'm never going to tell you anything."

Bastet smiled wickedly as she pulled out a dagger and asked, "Can't I?" and in a flash, she brought the dagger down on his neck in a fatal blow.

Bastet was standing over the sarcophagus when the human awoke with a look of shock mingled with a dawning horror.

"Now that you have witnessed the power of your God, do you wish to perhaps reconsider your position?" As she spoke, she pulled out a vile of some murky brown liquid and seemed to be considering it as the human tried to work out what was going on.

"What's that?" the man demanded.

"This? It's an acid called Hatetium that is, so far as I am aware, only to be found on one of the neighbouring moons of Hatet. The acid very slowly burns its way through human skin tissue, I am told it is exceptionally painful. It is, however, a much more elegant a way to flay a person alive than with mundane tools, they make it so messy." Her sadistic grin stretched further as his eyes widened and his breathing picked up, she was fairly certain that she'd be getting what she wanted now.

"Are you willing to answer my questions now, human?" He nodded, his horror filled eyes never leaving the small vile of acid.

"Very good!" she responded cheerfully.

"Why did your people not keep the Stargate buried, what were you planning to use it for?"

"We, we didn't know what it was, it was found by the goblins over a hundred years ago in, uh, Egypt. Giza, near the Great Pyramids. We had just acquired it from the goblins and were trying to decipher what it was meant to do."

Bastet frowned at his answer before asking, "What are these 'goblins' that you speak of?"

"Er, uh, they're small sort of, uh, ugly creatures that run the wizarding bank Gringotts. They dig up lots of old tombs and such looking for gold, that's how they found the gate."

"They're another race then?" she asked and he nodded. "What other races of intelligent species are there on your planet?"

"Er, well, there are centaurs, they're like a cross of man and horse. Then there are house-elves, they're smaller and uglier than goblins and are servants of wizards. And the merfolk live under water. And then there are muggles."

"Interesting, what are muggles and wizards?"

"Muggles are just normal non-magical humans, wizards are magical humans."

"Like you?"

"Yes."

"Magical? That is what that energy you use in combat is, magic?"

"Yes."

"And how many magical beings are there on, ah, Earth. How many non-magical."

"Er, I don't know exact figures, like over six billion muggles I think. Wizards, maybe a few million at most." Bastet smiled a genuine smile at that; it was good news that the entire planet didn't possess these magical powers.

"You spoke before as if magical and non-magical, wizard and muggle, were the same species just that some didn't possess magic?"

"Yes, that's correct. Sometimes a witch or wizard can be born from a muggle family."

"Intriguing." And it was, Bastet was beginning to think that she now had an answer for what happened to the Furlings. They had likely gone to Earth and integrated with the humans there sometime after the rebellion. The good news was that the human blood likely diluted the 'magical' powers of the Furlings, weakening them to the point that it seemed wizards needed a 'wand' to use their magic.

The interrogation continued on for hours before Bastet eventually had the human sent off to a cell, she had much to ponder. The biggest issue being the potential for a new and vastly improved host.

Ra had once tried to take an Asgard named Famrir as a host, but it had ultimately rejected him. Another old Goa'uld, Xiuhcoatl, had once tried to make a Furling a host, that had ended in his quick death.

But now perhaps the 'wizards' would be weak enough for a strong Goa'uld to take them as a host. It would certainly be something worth looking into, if for no reason than to settle her feline curiosity.

**1999 A.D. – September 28**

**Bastet's Personal Chambers – Great Temple of Bast**

**Planet: Bubastis – Homeworld of the Goa'uld Bastet**

Bastet, like most Goa'uld, had a preference for taking only the most beautiful humans as a host. Part of this was the belief that all powerful God's such as they, themselves proposed to be, would not be ugly. They are divine; after all, they are perfection.

Bastet, being a Goa'uld Queen and known as a Goddess of sensuality and fertility to some was particularly interested in the beauty of her host. Human males were easy to control when presented by such beauty, and other Goa'uld were prone to grow jealous. Not only that, but she had grown fond of human reproductive activities.

However, in the interest of power Bastet was willing to suffer through a lesser host, at least for the time being.

Once she had exhausted the human of all his useful information, she began testing him in all manner of ways. She studied his physiology and did a few rudimentary tests on his 'magic' while monitoring his brain activities. She was quite curious in exactly how these wizards worked.

The best news she discovered was that wizards were compatible hosts, the only unknown was how the magic of the host would react to the attempt of possessing them. That was of great concern to the Goa'uld who had no desire to die any time soon, but she was likewise wary of allowing one of her underlings to test in the fear that should they succeed, they may prove a powerful enemy.

Not that Bastet thought her underlings were anything but loyal, but with her fellow Goa'uld it is often best to not allow them even the hint of temptation.

Still, there was a reason for the saying that _'curiosity killed the cat'_, and Bastet was nothing if not cat-like. Her curiosity often led her to forgo caution in the quest for answers to whatever question was swirling about in her mind.

That is what led her here to her soft and silky bed in which was tied up the human wizard as she had her way with him. It was not merely her enjoyment of the act that she did this, she also desired a genetic sample from the wizard as she had a theory and was eager to test it.

The human, much to Bastet's amusement, quickly went from terror to lust when Bastet joined him in her private chambers and her servants divested her of clothing. As always, men were easy to control.

Once the deed was done and she had her genetic sample Bastet wasted no time in pulling the wizard into a deeply passionate kiss. Before he even knew what was happening Bastet had made her way into the wizard and started taking control.

Knowing the risk of rejection Bastet worked feverishly not only to take control of the host before he could retaliate but also to learn everything she could about the mechanics of magic. She had thought herself successful as she quickly reigned in control of the host body but he was a talented wizard and fought back with his mind.

Once she gained complete control of the host's body the host had only their mind to fight back with. The difference between a normal host and a magical host is that the magical ones need only their mind to fight back. The wizard's internal magic started fighting back once he began attempting to expel her, but Bastet was an old and powerful Goa'uld and fought back viciously. Even once she realized this body was lost to her she fought on, determined to find its weakness so that it could be exploited in the future.

Though it may have felt significantly longer to both symbiote and host, it was over in a matter of minutes with Bastet retreating hastily from the wizard. Relana, her loyal First Prime, moved in such a precise and fluid movement that she was a blur even to a Goa'uld. The wizard's head was severed from his body by one of her twin blades and Bastet entered and quickly took control of the body of one of her human servants.

"My Lady, are you well?"

"Yes Relana, more than well." Leaving Relana to deal with her former host and the dead wizard she made her way to see one of her minions, Beset. It was time for Bastet to visit Egypt.

**2000 A.D. – February 5**

**Throne Room – Pyramid of Bast (Cheop Class Mothership)**

**Hidden behind the Moon**

"What have you learned?" she asked, staring down at her Underlord imperiously.

"We have learned much, My Lady," reported Beset as her golden mask, that of a rather demonic looking cat, faded away to reveal a surprisingly kind faced woman. "The Tau'ri have advanced a great deal since their rebellion, they have harnessed the power of the atom and begun flight into space, however it is all very much still primitive." Bastet frowned, with such a large population they could still be dangerous with such technology, if they chose.

"Did you foresee any possibility that they may become more dangerous in the immediate future?" It would of course be a very long time before they'd be capable of competing with the Goa'uld, no matter what. However, if they advance swiftly enough in the coming years they could make a potential invasion of earth a costly affair.

"My Lady, in my investigations I found one group of scientists that seem to be advancing quite rapidly, for their technology level, in space flight. A scientist by the name of Irène de Condorcet has developed some technology that could vastly improve their interplanetary space travel. However they are some ways away from being able to leave their own system."

"Good." It was not ideal, if they could manage to produce suitable interplanetary starships to defend Earth it would make controlling them much more difficult. On the other side, they wouldn't be able to challenge the rest of the galaxy any time soon. "Continue Beset."

"My research leads me to believe that most of the Tau'ri, the ones who are called 'muggles', do not believe in the 'Old Gods', they have since moved on to various other faiths. In most cases, as I say. The 'magical' Tau'ri however are different. Most seem to labour under the assumption that the Gods were simply powerful wizards or muggle myths. However there are some cults, primarily in Egypt, India, and America, that still worship the Goa'uld."

Thankfully one of the things Bastet had gone over with her former wizard prisoner was modern geography and politics. It paid to know who kill first, after all. It was with said knowledge that she actually knew where these places were located.

"Indeed? Why?" Not that she was complaining, of course, but knowing the why could go a long way in manipulating the Tau'ri into doing her bidding.

"It seems that some of them have come across records of before the rebellion and believe that we are in fact the ones who gifted wizards and witches with magic." Beset's eyes sparkled with mischief at that little fact.

"Really?" Bastet's smiled in devilish delight at this, it could certainly help her in efforts to gain some magical followers. If they already believed such things then Bastet would need only display her power and she would already be well on her way to making followers out of them. "Carry on."

"The cults are small in number, as I said, one of the largest however is the Cult of Bastet, they meet to worship at your old temple in Bubastis. It is, from what I have found, their belief that you may be able to protect them from a creature known as a Nundus." The Goa'uld frowned thoughtfully at that, making Bastet more curious than she already was.

"A Nundus?" she asked bewildered, she'd never heard of such a creature in her life. Why ever would they think she'd protect them from one? Of course, she would, if it meant gaining their obedience.

"Yes, they are so far as I can tell a large leopard that breathes disease and inhabits the eastern part of the continent."

"Hmmm," Bastet thought for a moment, this beast reminded her of something. "It is very much like an Ammit, yes? They were leopard-like and breathed disease; I was led to believe that they were all destroyed, no?" It had been thousands of years since anybody had seen one of those foul creatures.

"Yes, it was believed that they had all been destroyed, as ordered by Ra, however it is possible they were not. From the research, I undertook they do share many similar characteristics, as you said, leopard-like and breath disease. Their hind quarters are more feline than the Ammit's, from what I remember, and they lack the long dog-like snout in favour of a more feline one."

"Intriguing. Very intriguing." Not to mention disconcerting, but she decided not to mention that. "What of your other task?" Bastet knew that there were a handful of Goa'uld that had been trapped on Earth either in a canopic jar or in their sarcophagus.

"I believe that Setesh is still active on Earth, that is where he has been hiding," smirked the deceptively kind faced Goa'uld. The dark bronze skinned Beset was likely thinking of one of the many jokes concerning Setesh and his Jaffa. "There have been several cults dedicated to him that have sprung up throughout the ages, I believe it has been his doing."

"How did you come across this information?" Bastet didn't have much use for Setesh, she had never liked him much, but she also did not wish to allow him to ruin her plans.

"I did some research on cults that are not connected to the Goa'uld, and have come across several over many centuries that have a similar leader using various names derived from Setesh. His current name is Seth, he has a cult of followers in a city called Seattle. I cannot of course be certain, but I am confident it is him."

As an afterthought she added, "I found no evidence of his ever being involved with wizarding society."

"Indeed? Good, hopefully he is thus far ignorant of magic. Nevertheless we shall have to pay the droopy one a visit eventually; I will not risk his causing me problems." After glaring off in the distance for a moment Bastet returned her attention to Beset. "The others?"

"I've found nothing to suggest that any other Goa'uld are active, however there was some sort of incident at the site that I believe Hathor had been entombed."

"Hathor? Perhaps we should assemble a team of humans to search for her, I do not wish for another Queen to be running amok on Earth, especially not with a sarcophagus, she could pose too great a danger. You've heard nothing on Isis and Osiris? Or Sekhmet, for that matter."

"No my Lady."

"Very well. You said that the magical cult met in my former temple, yes? Do the rings still work?" If they did, perhaps she could make a dramatic entrance and allow the humans to worship their Goddess in person.

"I do not know."

"No? Then do what you must to find out, however nobody is to use the rings until I give the command to do so. I shall leave you in charge for the time being as I must experiment with my new host." With that she rose and quickly stalked off to her personal quarters with a handful of servants following closely behind her.

Bastet had pondered how to take a magical host for some time before the answer came to her. The wizard that she had tried to possess had consciously fought against her, he had willed his magic to expel her. So then what other option was there than to remove the witches will?

Or, more accurate, make it so that she has none. One talented enough with the hand device can do all sorts of things, especially to the brain. They can shut down a person's body, anything from simple motor function to shutting down the whole thing, resulting in death. A particularly talented user can target specific aspects of the brain and attack them in multiple ways.

For this Bastet, who had done extensive research into this area, chose to use her hand device and attack specific parts of the brain that dealt with memory and behaviour. Inducing amnesia would allow Bastet to implant false memories once she had overtaken the host, modifying her behaviour, specifically lowering her inhibitions, would make her mind less likely to rebel later.

After that, Bastet hoped that the girl would prove to be a most excellent host. She had already run several tests with her hand device as well as taking a peek in her Goa'uld form to see if it seemed compatible, and it did.

Bastet hadn't been this excited since Sekhmet was banished.

The prospective host was Egyptians, apparently from a long line of Egyptian wizards, but they didn't believe in the God's. She was also very beautiful, perhaps even slightly more beautiful than her previous host. She didn't really count her current host as one, it was merely a means to an end, this end. Best of all is that the prospective host had alluring dark green eyes, Bastet always preferred green eyed hosts when they could be found.

Green, after all, was her favourite colour. And the colour of her formal attire.

Upon entering her rooms she found the host tied down as she had been left, looking rather out of it, likely from the drugs she had been given by the servant girl. Meddling about in ones brain could be painful, after all, and Bastet didn't want anything damaged.

At least, not too badly.

"Do not worry my love, you are to be honoured above all others."

Raising her left hand she went to work before ejecting herself from her current host, dumping some poison as she did so, and quickly making her way to the new host. The mixture of brain damage and drugs made it quite easy to take the host and Bastet wasted little time in feeding her host a few vague false memories to help ensure loyalty.

The biggest issue was the magic, which didn't attack her thankfully. She picked up the wand that had once belong to the girl and waved it around a little, causing sparks to fly from it's end. That was a good sign.

Deciding that things were all in working order, physically at least, Bastet began looking through memories of her host. Some types of memory remained even after her manipulations, her primary target having been episodic memory. Her knowledge of magic remain for the most part, though somewhat fuzzy perhaps.

With her semantic memories still mostly intact, along with most of her procedural memory, it took little time for Bastet to learn how to use the basics of magic.

What excited the Goddess the most was when she realized that Naquadah and magic worked and played well together, better than she ever could have expected. Naquadah can be used to enhance many forms of energy, and it seems that magical energy is no exception to this. The Goa'uld's superior control of the human body and the Naquadah in the blood enhanced magic to the point where she did not need a silly wand to perform many spells.

That was a thought that pleased her to no end.

**2000 A.D. – February 12**

**Main Chamber – Temple of Bast**

**Planet: Earth – Per-Bast, Egypt**

There were a great many worshippers today, praying for the return of the Goddess Bastet. The reason for that was a recent attack by a Nundus that resulted in the death of two unfortunate witches that happened to be in the area. They had brought the two bodies here immediately and prayed that Bastet would restore them.

It was, then, quite a surprise when something amazing happened.

A set of several rings came down from the ceiling and in a flash materialized several figures. Five of them wore large silver masks that resembled a Nundus, which drew the ire of more than a few of the worshippers present. The last figure wore a golden mask of a lioness.

The confused and slightly irritated worshippers quickly drew their wands, not understanding how these people had appeared in the middle of the temple despite the old anti-apparition wards.

However before any of them could fire a spell the gold headed figure waved its right hand, which glowed red. The wizards and witches could only look on dumbstruck as the figure, which bore a strong resemblance to the great statue decorating the wall behind her, disarmed them all without need of a wand.

"Bow before your God." Her deep and booming voice commanded, the green eyes upon the golden mask seemed to glow with some inner fire as she did so. The members of the Cult of Bast wasted no time in following her command; this was what they had always dreamed about after all.

At last their Goddess had heard them, at last Bastet had returned.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: ** I don't own Harry Potter or Stargate, I make no money off of either and am simply writing this for my own enjoyment.

**Author's Note:** First I want to say that you shouldn't expect rehashes of SG-1 stories and planets. To be sure there will be SG-1 characters/planets/stories and such, but due to the circumstances in this AU things are quite different. Ra still being alive, for instance.

This chapter introduces us to the wizarding version of the Stargate Program, so it may be a bit slow. Before anybody raises a fuss, there will be plenty of magic in this story but the wizards aren't exactly going to go around showing off their powers. You could say, I suppose, that those running things are of a more Slytherin nature and recognize the importance of subtlety and hiding your true strength.

Lastly, once more a thanks to Vishal for his beta work.

**The Gateway of Mysteries**

**1999 A.D. – August 30**

**Elevator, Ministry of Magic**

**Planet: Earth – London, England**

"So," Ron began once again, "no clue why Kingsley wants to see us?" Ron looked as if contemplating the question was giving him quite a bit of trouble.

"No Ron, no clue, just like last time you asked me."

"Well, it's got to be important, right, I mean, he seemed a bit stressed, what do you think?"

Harry had to concede that Minister Shacklebolt did seem rather stressed about something when the two saw him earlier. "I don't know Ron, we'll find out when we get there I guess. Hey Hermione." The last was in greeting as Harry's other best friend, Hermione Granger, walked into the elevator from Level Four, where she worked.

"Oh, hey Harry, Ron." Hermione looked distinctly ruffled, a not uncommon occurrence since she began working for the Ministry and trying to better the lives of magical creatures.

"I heard you've been making friends again." Harry commented neutrally. Hermione had done just about everything except make friends since she started her job.

"Oh yes," she scowled at Harry, "all I wanted was for everybody in the office to do the tasks of the house elves, just for one week, but no, they refused. They just don't want to see what slavery is really like, of course, ignorance is bliss and all that."

"Yeah, I expect that's exactly it."

"Yes. Hopefully I can appeal to Kingsley when I see him." Hermione chose to ignore Ron's sarcasm.

"We're headed to see Shack now, want to tag along?" Ron asked.

"Really? I have a meeting with him in a few minutes, odd. You two as well then?" her brow furrowed at this new piece of information, Harry figured she honestly thought he wanted to speak with her about elves.

"Yep. Wonder what Kingsley wants?" Harry's musings were cut off as the elevator doors opened, declaring that they were at Level Nine. "Well, here's our stop, better go find out." The other two quickly followed behind Harry as he made his way towards the Minister's office.

"Go right on in you three, the Minister is expecting you." Stephanie, Minister Shacklebolt's secretary, had taken some time to get used to seeing the great Harry Potter in person. At least now she only blushed a little when speaking to him.

When the trio of friends entered the Minister's office they found it to be quite full, which was no small feat as the room was quite large and well furnished.

"Ah, everybody is here now. Thank you for coming. Before we move any further I want to make one thing absolutely clear. What we will be discussing today is not to be shared with anybody, and as such each of you will be required preform several oaths to ensure your silence. If after hearing what we have to say, you do not want any part of it you will be obliviated and sent on your way. Any of you unwilling to submit to this must leave, now." Minister Shacklebolt glared out at the room as if daring them to leave, but nobody left.

"Good. Everybody take a piece of this rope, we'll be meeting with the Unspeakables."

As usual Harry landed on his arse after the portkey ride, but was otherwise fine upon landing in what he assumed was some portion of the Department of Mysteries that he had not seen upon his last 'visit'.

"This way." Shacklebolt led the group through a set of double doors where a large round table with something similar to pensieve set in it's middle. The room was already occupied by several of Unspeakables and a number of non-Ministry employees, including one Neville Longbottom whom the trio walked over to sit beside.

Once everybody was sat or found a nice place to stand, one of the Unspeakables stood to speak.

"Hello, for those who do not know me, I am Director Horatio Croaker, Head of the Department of Mysteries. Before we begin, our newcomers must swear their oaths. An Unspeakable will come to each of you to administer the oaths."

Harry felt somewhat apprehensive about the oaths, which included a vow to never knowingly or willingly disclose any information pertaining to something called the 'Gateway Project'. None of the vows were life threatening should they be broken, but they still had some unpleasant consequences.

"Very good. Now, we have here a Projection Pensieve, we wish to show you an event that took place over the weekend of the fourteenth. First, however, a quick review of the events that led to this. In 1879 a team from Gringotts came across a device hidden behind extremely powerful enchantments located in the Giza Plateau. The device is made of a metal completely foreign to earth."

The Director paused here as he allowed that fact to sink in for everybody.

"The device was a large ring, two large rings making up one, actually. The outer track has nine chevrons, the inner track is capable of spinning when powered and has a set of thirty nine symbols, all but one of which correspond to a star constellation. Two months ago the Department of Mysteries was able to acquire this object from the goblins. On Saturday the fourteenth, while were were still debating exactly what the object was used for, the following happened."

With that he flicked his wand at the pensieve, and they were all suddenly immersed in a memory.

The memory showed a number of Unspeakables in a room similar to this that was dominated by some large stones with odd symbols on them. They seemed, at least to Harry, to be arguing over what was written on the stone when suddenly the room began to shake.

The group as a whole ran into the next room through a previously concealed door and saw a large metallic ring with what looked to be some sort of glowing pool of water. What was more, there were two strangely dressed men speaking into a large round object. The Unspeakables wasted no time in stupefying the men as the pool of water behind them evaporated.

The memory ended shortly after that, leaving a bunch of confused witches and wizards sitting once again in the conference room.

"Naturally we did interrogate the subjects, including using Veritaserum, what they told us was most enlightening. It seems that this device, which we have named the Stargate, can instantaneously transport people from across the galaxy, perhaps even between galaxies, we don't know." Here Croaker paused once more as several people made exclamations of astonishment or disbelief.

"Further interrogations revealed that there is a race of beings that pose as Gods, they are called the Goa'uld. These beings control much of the galaxy and have vast armies of human and something called a Jaffa, they also have large fleets of space ships." Harry hadn't been able to watch too much television at the Dursley's, but he did watch some, and he couldn't help but think back to all of Dudley's old movies and shows. He vaguely remembered the Jedi from Star Wars and rather thought they were like wizards, just in space.

"These 'Gods' seem to take the form of Gods from the Egyptian pantheon, though it is entirely possible that they also take from others such as the Greek, Roman, Norse, Aztec pantheons. Or any of the others that have existed throughout our history. The two men who came through the Stargate to Earth did so under the orders of Bastet, and they also spoke of there being others such as Ra and Apophis."

"Bastet, or Bast, was an Egyptian Goddess worshipped at least since the Second Dynasty in Egypt, some five thousand years ago. She was a solar war deity, who originally had the head of a lioness but in later times took the form of a cat. Her main base of power of in Bubastis, in Lower Egypt. We're not sure how much of the Egyptian Mythology is based upon the lives of these Goa'uld, however we can be sure that these beings played some part in early human civilization."

Harry, like many others in the room, was stunned that some sort of race of aliens had lived on Earth thousands of years ago. He had always assumed that the old Egyptian and Greek Gods were wizards or completely fictional, but it seemed they were instead some advanced alien race.

"The following day," Croaker continued, "something much more distressing happened. The Stargate once again activated but this time more than two beings came out, and they seemed prepared to fight."

Once more Croaker waved his wand at the Pensieve and the entire room was drawn into a memory. This time there were wizards in the Gate Room keeping watch, which Harry thought was a rather smart thing to do. Unlike the last time where the people who came out looked completely human and more than a little lost, this time what came out was most obviously not from this planet.

And they looked prepared for war.

The people, he assumed they were humans, wore heavy armour over green garments of some sort, but that wasn't what Harry first noticed about them. Their heads were covered by some large silver mask that looked like a leopard or panther in Harry's opinion, though oddly off in some way. Each of them carried a long staff that they quickly turned in the direction of the wizards, Harry guessed it to be some sort of weapon.

While all the silver headed people were clearly female, the last person to come out of the watery puddle was male and clearly the leader. His gold head was in the form of a fierce lion, if that did not proclaim his leadership then his bellowing out orders in a deep and booming voice certainly did.

The others, the Jaffa as the leader had called them, leapt into action with a volley of fire from their staffs complimented with an unearthly scream that sent shivers down Harry's spine. Their weapons appeared to injure several of the unprepared wizards at first, before they began shielding. Their shields however were unprepared for when the enemy pounced, almost literally, upon the wizards and began using more mundane methods of attack. Turning their staffs into melee weapons and scratching with claws, they quickly had the Unspeakables on the defence.

However the one with a gold head, the leader, barked out more orders and they soon retreated, taking with them two hostages. Harry thought that the wizards might get a chance to go on the offensive before the leader lifted his hand and sent a ripple of energy surging through the air and sending the Unspeakables flying across the room. Moments later all of the attackers had retreated through the Stargate.

"Further interrogation of our two prisoners told us that the leader of this attack was a God by the name of Miuty, also from the Egyptian pantheon. Obviously from the commands given by Miuty we can assume that these warriors are the race of Jaffa. All of that brings us here to today, and why we've asked each of you to join us."

Here Croaker looked around the room, seemingly looking every person in the eye at once.

"At my recommendation and the Minister's approval, we intend to put together an organization whose goal it will be to explore the galaxy in the hopes of finding allies or technologies that will be of use in defending Earth. I highly doubt that this Bastet will be content to leave Earth alone, she and the rest of her kind will undoubtedly look upon us either as a threat to their power or a supply of new labour and hosts.

"In addition, it cannot be denied that our meddling with this device has put the entire world at risk, magical and muggle, thus it is our duty to do what we can to protect it. However, Britain cannot do this task alone, so we will be working with Ministries across the globe to bring the best and brightest that the wizarding world has to offer here, to join us. That is why each of your are here, you are the best and brightest that Britain has to offer."

Croaker sat down at Kingsley's nod, allowing the Minister to speak again.

"As Director Croaker said, you're here because you all have attributes that we think may help in defending Earth from potential enslavement or annihilation. However, as I said before, it is not compulsory, if you do not wish to be a part of this endeavour then speak now and we will allow to go on your way, peacefully."

Harry glanced around him to see the faces of the other witches and wizards, none looked like they were going to leave. Many looked scared, yes, and many looked shocked, a few even looked excited.

For his part Harry wasn't sure what to think. Just over a year ago he had finally defeated Voldemort and he had hoped that he'd be through saving the day for a while. He wanted time to be 'just Harry', but he was quickly finding out that separating 'just Harry' and 'Harry Potter' was a difficult task. No matter what he wanted, it seemed the wizarding community wasn't going to leave him alone.

Harry also came to realize that no matter how much he may wish to do something else, fighting and adventuring was what he was good at. Harry was a competent wizard all around, sure, but what he was truly great at was what he'd been doing the last seven years of his life, fighting to help make the world a better place. A bit of peace was nice, of course, but for some reason it never quite sat right with him, not that he got much of a taste of it.

This, Harry thought, was something actually worth doing. Not something he had to do because some crazy guy was after him, not something he felt obligated to do because of some prophecy. It wasn't even something that he had to do because nobody else could. However, it was something worth doing, something that he felt needed to be done. That, and a part of him couldn't help but remember some of the old comics Dudley had read or movies his cousin had enjoyed. He briefly entertained himself with images of being a Jedi before Kingsley began speaking again.

"Our plan is, as the Director said, to start up an organization whose goal is to defend Earth from alien enemies. As you saw in the memories, these alien beings are very powerful and their technology is vastly more advanced than that of the muggles. If one of them were to come and attempt to conquer Earth, I doubt the muggles would be able to stand against them.

"As for the specifics of what this organization will do, we will send teams out through the Stargate to explore the galaxy around us, we will also have a team of Enchanters working to develop technologies that can work alongside our magic. One bit of good news we have learned is that this technology involved in the Stargate is compatible, to a degree at least, with magic. It is my hope that one day we can build an armada of ships that combine this advanced technology and our own magic, with which we can protect Earth."

The meeting continued on for another couple of hours as Kingsley and the Unspeakables went over their plans for the Space Exploration & Defence Program, S.E.D.P., and what they expected of all the people there. Harry found that he, Ron, and Hermione were going to be drafted into one of the exploration teams, due in no small part to their various misadventures at Hogwarts and on the Horcrux search.

Each team would be made up of five members. The Team Leader would, shockingly, be the one responsible for leading the team, this is the role that Kingsley hoped Harry would play on his team. In addition would two Support Wands whose role it was to support the others and, hopefully, be able to fill in when need be for any of the other positions. Ron and Hermione would be filling these roles. The last two were more specialized, one being a linguist and the other being a warding expert.

Neville, Harry was pleased to hear, given a support role on one of the other teams with a good chance to take a leadership role down the road. Kingsley admitted that he was mightily impressed when he heard that Neville had helped to lead Dumbledore's Army while Hogwarts was under Voldemort's control, and he was even more impressed with Neville's part in the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry, Ron and Hermione all agreed that Neville would do a great job, he'd come quite a long way from the days of being a chubby and shy boy that he was during first year.

Another surprise for Harry came when he found out that George Weasley, whom he'd not even noticed in the room previously, was going to be helping in their research and development division. He'd had a lot less desire to continue Weasley Wizarding Wheezes since the death of Fred, his twin, and so jumped at the chance to use his creative genius to help SEDP. The twins had developed a number of useful things for the war against Voldemort and George was looking forward to getting the chance to do it while working with some of the best Enchanters in the world.

**2000 A.D. – March 20**

**Personal Quarters, SET-One, SEDP Headquarters**

**Planet: Earth – Unplottable Location in Wales**

The months since finding out about the Stargate had been exciting and exhausting for Harry Potter. The exhaustion comes from the amount of work he has had to do ever since joining the program, it was even worse than Auror training. Of course, Harry also thought he'd probably learned more in just the past few months than nearly an entire year at the Auror Academy.

It wasn't all duelling training either, quite a lot of what he learned were languages and some basic science. His Goa'uld, or at least what passed for Goa'uld on Earth, was decent enough that he thought he'd be able to follow along with most conversations. Science he understood enough to grasp the basics, and to realize just how much magic owned science. They also had to endure quite a lot of fitness training, which was something wizards often overlooked as they allowed magic to do things for them.

Occlumency and Legilimency were another subject that Harry and everybody else involved in the program had to learn. Harry was never going to be a great Occlumens, he had always known that, but he'd progressed to an acceptable level nonetheless. Legilimency, on the other hand, he rather thought he was quite good at. He'd never be a master at the art, sure, but he was quite good regardless. Certainly good enough to know when he's being lied to.

The physical and mental conditioning helped Harry in an unexpected way, he was better at magic than before. As their Magical Theory instructor, a wispy little Mexican fellow named Jorge Caballero, explained the actual magical power that a wizard has to draw upon fluctuates very little. The difference in magical power between somebody like Albus Dumbledore or Lord Voldemort and the average wizard was not that great.

What makes some wizards so much more powerful than others mostly comes down to three things, mental and physical fitness in addition to practice. A truly great wizard can use magic without the aid of an incantation or wand movements, they need only have the proper mental discipline and force of will to make it happen. Being in good physical condition helps in a number of ways, from being able to dodge instead of shield to moving and casting more quickly before your opponent can get to you, and most of all simply by being able to last longer than a less fit opponent. Practice, of course, makes perfect and using magic daily is the best way to increase the potency of magic.

There was one other, more controversial, aspect of magical power and that was natural ability. Master Caballero compared it to fine wine, over years or generations it gets better. Of course, too long, or too much inbreeding in the case of wizards, and the effect is ruined. That, and you end up with wizards like Crabbe and Goyle who were only marginally more intelligent than a flobberworm.

Shortly after their initial introduction to the SEDP foreign wizards began arriving and a group of goblins from Derlittats began working on building a new headquarters deep within a mountain in Wales. After all, they didn't want the Stargate being active in the middle of London or within the Ministry of Magic. Unfortunately the goblins of Gringotts were still rather unhappy with wizards in the aftermath of Harry's last visit and furthermore wanted nothing to do with the Stargate.

Harry only felt slightly guilty for breaking into Gringotts, and even less for breaking out upon the back of a dragon.

Derlittats was another tribe of goblins, like the tribe of Gringotts, however they lived mostly in Siberia. Of course, like the goblins of Gringotts, they often went out to find gold or treasure wherever they could find it in the world. As far as Harry was concerned, there really wasn't much of a difference, they all looked the same and spoke the same language.

Another development was that Harry was introduced to the other two members of his team.

Imhotep Neferankh was an Egyptian wizard who was also something of a wizarding archaeologist. He would be the teams linguist and would be the old man of the group despite being just twenty seven years old. Harry found him to be a nice enough bloke, even if he had a habit of getting a little bit too interested in his chosen subject of study.

Niklas Hjorth was the teams warding expert, the stereotypical big blonde Scandinavian was a nice if somewhat quiet guy. The only one on the team that the big Swede seemed to have bonded with at all was Harry, who just seemed to understand him despite his limited speech. He was still one heck of a wizard in Harry's opinion, and proved himself to Harry and the team a number of times during training.

Harry was quite surprised when he learned that the program wasn't going to be run by somebody from the British Ministry of Magic. Apparently Kingsley made good on his vow that it would be an international organization.

Frédéric Étienne Delamater was a wise old wizard with a fairly long silvery beard who had once been the French Minister of Magic and an ambassador to the International Confederation of Wizards. He had also served in an independent position on the ICW as the Head of International Magical Emergencies and later Chair Wizard of the International Magical Board of Peace and Cooperation. Thus, with his extensive experience in leadership around the world he was a natural choice to lead the project. The fact that before being Minister of Magic he had been head of the French Hit Wizards was also helpful.

Lawrence Gilmour, a Canadian wizard who had retired only two years ago as Canada's Head of Magical Law Enforcement was a well respected wizard throughout the world. He was chosen to head the Division of Exploration and Defence, or DED. Harry found him to be a likeable guy who knew what he was talking about, at least as much as anybody could considering the circumstances.

Jeffrey Kirkland was an American wizard who had come over from being in charge of the American Department of Magic's version of the Department of Mysteries, the Division of Magical Research. Here he would be head of the Division of Research and Development of Magic and Technologies, or the DRD as most ended up calling it. Harry only met the man once and found him a little bit creepy, bringing back memories of his first encounter with the wand maker, Ollivander.

Another surprise for Harry and many of the wizards was the inclusion of a team of muggle scientists. The topic had been hotly debated but eventually Director Delamater decided that it would be for the best if they had some top muggle scientists to help them understand the technology that they encountered throughout the galaxy. Most of them seemed to be quite decent people, though one Canadian scientist had already been hexed a few times for his snarky comments.

On the whole though, Harry thought it was likely the right decision. After he and Hermione had gotten involved in a debate with two pureblood German wizards about modern muggle ships, he could see the need for the scientists. The two purebloods were somehow under the impression that muggles still used Ship-O-the-Lines and Frigates, wooden ones that is. They had been commenting on how to best enchant said ships to be able to sail in space. Needless to say, there were many muggleborns and half-bloods that simply stared at the two in open amazement at their ignorance.

Harry's musing about the past months were broken however when his best friend and fellow team member Ron Weasley stuck his head into the room.

"Oi! You ready?" SET-One was to go on it's first mission today, and only the second mission of any team. There were some that felt SET-One was too young, that Harry was only given his own team because he was Harry Potter. They were probably right, but then again after all the adventures that Harry went through he privately thought he had as much right and experience as many of those who complained.

"Yeah, I'm coming." Harry was already dressed in his dark blue robes that were to serve as their uniform. The two made their way down to the 'Gate Room', where Hermione and the others were already waiting.

"What's wrong Hermione? We're going to another planet, you should be excited." The others rolled their eyes as Hermione Granger couldn't get much more excited. As it was, she was practically bouncing in excitement.

Several weeks ago a team had travelled to the planet of Abydos, the address listed on the cartouche that was found with the Stargate. There they had found a desert planet that mined the mineral that made up the Stargate, Naquadah. They had also found some caves that had a history of the civilization and, even more important, they found a large list of addresses to other worlds.

Today Harry and his team would be going to one of those worlds, hopefully one not infested with Goa'uld.

After the Stargate connected a probe was sent through. This was a rather clever creation by the enchanters as a way to have a look around before heading through the gate. It was similar to the two way mirror that Harry had been given by Sirius, though in this case the mirror was in the shape of a small ball. It would send back images to a connecting mirror, this one a large slightly curved one in the command centre. It had likewise been enchanted to test for toxins, radiation and breathable air, which apparently turned up clean as Harry and his team were given the go ahead.

"You don't need to hold your breath Ron," was all Harry said before walking through the Stargate. Moments later he was on the other side in the middle of a town square, the rest following through behind him. Including a puffy cheeked Ron Weasley.

"Doesn't look much different really, does it?" Ron observed as they looked about. They seemed to be in the middle of a small city that seemed to be the midst of it's own Industrial Revolution, similar to mid nineteenth century Earth. The people scurrying about were understandably shocked at their arrival.

"Okay, Imhotep, you're up I think." Harry nodded to the Egyptian who took a step forward and tried to call out in Goa'uld to the people. They didn't seem to understand, but luckily somebody who seemed to be a leader of some sort had arrived to talk with them. Or try to talk, at least.

"Figures," mumbled Ron, "spend all that time learning languages, and we go to a planet that doesn't speak any of them."

"Wouldn't want to make it easy, would we?" grinned Harry, not at all surprised by their luck. "Anything luck understanding them mate?" he asked Imhotep.

"I'm not sure, it seems like it might be Germanic, perhaps, or Norse. It's not like any Germanic languages I've studied, but if they were taken from thousands of years ago, it's likely developed on it's own." The teams linguist brought out a small journal and started writing in it, obviously hoping that the characters they use may be similar. In the mean time, the rest of the team took in the sights around them.

"Something smells good," was Ron's observation, which earned him an incredulous 'You just ate!' from Hermione.

"I don't think they knew what the Stargate was, Harry." He nodded, thinking Hermione was likely right. The platform that it was one seemed to be religious in nature, and not very functional for regular travel through the Stargate. Harry was distracted though by the excited jabbering of the man whom Imhotep had been speaking with.

"Got something?"

"Yeah, I think so, we should follow him, I think he's going to take us to somebody I can speak with." The the team followed behind the portly little priest, judging by his robes. "Apparently some runes seemed familiar to him, they're very old Germanic runes. If I had to guess, I'd say that when they were brought here they spoke a Proto-Germanic language that has evolved, just like modern German. Parts of it seem vaguely familiar to German, but not enough for me to understand."

Harry nodded, it made sense that their languages would develop over time just like the same languages did on Earth. About fifteen minutes later they were taken to a building where they met with a group of what Harry could only assume were archaeologists. He based that assumption on the various ancient looking artefacts around the room, and the maps and other such items.

It took another hour before they started to make progress.

"I think I'm getting the hang of it. We can vaguely understand each other through the runes, and I'm starting to get a feel for how their language has evolved. Apparently this place is called Nythabu and they are a peaceful society in the midst of an industrial revolution. From the little I've learned so far, they believed the 'Great Ring' was a symbol of the Gods. He wants to take us to some old ruins that have some strange writing they've never been able to decipher."

_Probably Goa'uld,_ Harry thought. "Okay, sounds like fun to me." Harry wasn't sure 'fun' was quite the right word, but he thought they should check out the ruins regardless.

The ruins appeared to be a mostly destroyed pyramid, suggesting that it was indeed Goa'uld. Most of the writing within the ruins was in native runes similar to the ones that Imhotep had been using earlier. It was not until they got deeper into the pyramid that they found Goa'uld.

"Ah, interesting," said Imhotep, "this planet once belonged to Goa'uld, though for some reason it doesn't say his name. He brought the people here in secret, he wanted to experiment on the humans, to create a greater host, an advanced human. A Hok'tar. After several generations of working none of the humans displayed any sort of special abilities, at least none that he found useful."

At that Harry interrupted, "what do you mean, none that he found useful? Did it work in some other way?"

"Oh yes, from what I'm reading, most of the improvements seemed to be in brain function, which the Goa'uld would see as useless because, well, they don't require their hosts to think." Harry nodded grimly at that. "Anyway, it seems that their God grew tired of them, and one day he ascended into the heavens with his great ship, and rained down fire upon the local villages."

"I'm surprised he allowed any of them to live. I mean, they may not be advanced in the way he wishes, but if they were advanced in any way, I'd expect him to destroy all of them, so they'll never be a threat." Imhotep frowned at Hermione's logic before leading them back to the previous writings.

"I think that story is here."

The next several hours involved Imhotep talking and reading with the other archaeologists as he put together the planets history. Apparently the god, whom they still had no name for, tried to wipe out all life but was unable. A few small groups of people managed to hide away and then restart their civilization.

While their scholarly team member was doing that, the rest were left to talk amongst themselves and with their guide. Krügot, the name of their guide, was a remarkably quick learner and after a few hours of being with the group of wizards, he could understand their spoken English well enough. He still couldn't figure out how to speak it very well, but he was at least able to get the gist of what they were saying.

"It must be their advanced mental abilities," Hermione theorized, "give him long enough, and I expect he'll be talking with us as if he were a natural born Englishman."

From Imhotep and his friends the wizards were able to learn a brief history of Nythabu. Once they had rebuilt their civilization they began advancing rapidly until roughly a thousand years ago, when a Goa'uld named Apophis destroyed their world. They had advanced to roughly a few decades beyond current Earth technology when Apophis attacked them. He destroyed everything he could from space, around three quarters of their population died.

However, like before, they managed to survive. They had long feared that the Goa'uld would return, and so they built extensive underground and underwater hideouts, and enough people were able to make it to them that they survived. They were still recovering to this day, but they had grown fearful of advancing technology too much because they believe it would mark the return of the Goa'uld.

Harry could understand that somewhat, though he thought it better to try and advance as much as possible and hopefully defend against the Goa'uld. They were probably just as likely to come destroy or enslave them out of boredom. Of course Harry would be the first to admit that he was no expert on Goa'uld.

It was as one of their guides was pointing up towards the ceiling that Harry noticed something peculiar. The guides, though Harry thought them more like guards, were all wearing heavy brown overcoats. As the one lifted his arm to point upwards however, something very curious was revealed, an advanced looking weapon of some sort.

Harry was not expert on weapons, though he and all the people who worked at SEDP had learned how to use the highly enchanted M16's that they had acquired with the help of a squib who used to be in the SAS. They used the muggle weapons so as not to give away the secret of their magic, if it could be helped.

The weapon that their guide carried was very smooth and sleek, looking completely at odds with the rest of their technology. Harry had the distinct impression that something wasn't quite adding up here, and resolved to keep a look out for any further clues.

**2000 A.D. – March 21**

**The Royal Courtyard**

**Planet: Nythabu – Känegertên**

By the next afternoon Harry was amazed at how many small clues there really were that something was out of sorts, things that he'd have never noticed if he hadn't be looking carefully. When the opportunity presented it's self for Harry to speak with the others minus Imhotep, he filled them in.

"Look," he began after Niklas subtly cast a privacy ward, "I'm not a hundred percent, but something is not right here. Have any of you noticed anything odd?"

Hermione and Ron hadn't noticed anything, but Niklas was looking pensive. "Nick? Anything?"

"No cars or horses, or any sort of transport," he noted gruffly, something that Harry hadn't picked up on before.

"You know, I think you're right, odd."

"That doesn't mean anything though, I mean, maybe they've never had reason to have anything like that? Their entire civilization was nearly destroyed only a thousand years ago, the vast majority of their population probably lives in this city, why would they need cars? And not every world will have horses and other animals like Earth, Harry."

"Okay Hermione, perhaps, but I've noticed some other things were off as well. I mean, have you seen how the people act around here? They all seem a bit, I don't know, shifty, like there is something going on that we don't know about." Ron nodded at Harry's observation.

"Yeah, they all look a bit shady to me."

"Honestly!" replied Hermione, "We're from another planet and they don't know a thing about us, of course they're a bit scared and apprehensive around us. It's perfectly natural."

Harry had to give her credit, she did have a point.

"Okay, okay, maybe Hermione, but still, like you said earlier, this is supposed to be their capital, right?" The others nodded, from what Imhotep said it was indeed their capital and seat of their King, whom they had yet to meet. "So, why are there so few people walking around?"

"I don't know, maybe the strange aliens have something to do with it Harry?" Again, Harry had to concede that there may be merit in her argument.

"Maybe. Earlier I caught a glimpse of the weapon one our so called guides was wearing, it didn't look like any sort of technology they ought to have. Looked completely different from everything that we've seen of their civilization so far."

"There could be a number of reasons for that Harry, honestly, it may be a relic from their previous civilization or from the Goa'uld."

"Maybe," Harry said again, his eyes narrowing as a group of natives ran across a street shooting glances their way.

"Just keep an eye out guys, okay? Nick, bring the ward down." Niklas did so as Krügot came over to them with a friendly smile.

"Beautiful, yes?" asked the man, his English had become good enough that he could communicate reasonably well. At his question, he gestured out towards the sprawling gardens of Känegertên, which happened to be the name of the Royal Seat of King Emhang IV. They were supposed to be meeting the King today, and all of them were quite nervous about the whole thing.

"Oh yes," Harry replied, turning his attention back to the gardens. He didn't have to lie about that, the gardens were quite spectacular, he knew that Neville would love to see this place. It was filled with many exotic looking plants that Harry was quite certain did not exist on Earth in any form.

"Indeed," Krügot agreed, "King will see you now. We will meet your friend on, ah, way."

They did pick up an excited Imhotep just outside the doors to the Kings Court.

King Emhang looked about middle age, short and pale. Of course, pale seemed to be normal for these people, Harry assumed that they must have arrived during a period of good weather. After they entered and gave a respectful bow, the King greeted them in his own tongue which Imhotep translated.

"He said, uh, greetings guests to our world, it pleases he and his people to meet a peaceful race from another world." Krügot beamed happily at Imhotep, nodding his head.

"Ah," began Harry eloquently, "we're happy to have met such a, uh, interesting and generous people as yourselves." Imhotep translated once again, this time for the King's benefit.

When the King asked why he and his team came to their planet, Harry answered honestly.

"We're explorers," he began, "from a place we call Earth. Peaceful explorers," Harry felt the need to elaborate. "A few months, er, seasons, ago a Goa'uld came through our gate and killed some of our people. We didn't know what it was at the time and now we're exploring, hoping to find allies and technologies to help us defend our planet. One planet, the only one we had an address for, happened to have a list of other addresses. This was one of them, so we thought we'd come and explore the planet, and hopefully make new friends."

As he finished his statement, trying to sound as friendly as possible, Imhotep and Krügot both worked on translating. The King was very thoughtful at Harry's remarks and seemed to be considering something. He and his advisers spoke quietly amongst themselves, speaking too softly and too rapidly for Imhotep to fully understand what they were talking about.

"You have many addresses, for other worlds, yes?" Harry confirmed that they did indeed. "Is your world willing to, ah, negotiate the release of these addresses? We, too, would be most interested in exploring the world around us."

After that was translated for Harry he considered it for a moment, if they really were at the level of technology that they claimed to be then he wasn't sure what they would have to offer in return. However, Harry was still fairly confident that they were hiding their true level of development, and if that were so then they would have quite a bit to offer Earth.

"It may be considered, Your Majesty," Harry allowed before pressing on, "but, if I may be so blunt, the technological development of your society would, seem, at least, to be over a hundred years behind our own. I am unsure what the people of this planet would have to offer Earth."

Imhotep looked hesitant to translate that verbatim, but it did not matter, Krügot was quick to do so after sending a slight glare Harry's way.

"Seems?" asked the King, "you do not believe that we have been honest with you?" Outwardly the King seemed calm and simply confused as to why anybody would suspect anything different. His voice, however, carried a menacing tone of warning that would have worked on many people, but not Harry Potter.

"Yes, Your Majesty, I believe there is more to your society than you are showing." Harry paused at that for a moment before hastily continuing as the translation was finished. "I could, of course, understand your position. Your entire civilization has been nearly wiped out twice by the Goa'uld, you hide your true strength so that your enemies will underestimate you and, one would hope, ignore you."

King Emhang frowned at that, before looking Harry directly in the eyes and asking, "What is it that makes you think we are doing so, Harry Potter?" He had, apparently, caught on to the fact that Harry's companions were sceptical of his suspicions.

"Oh, there are many signs if only you know where to look." Harry replied mysteriously, his eyes sparkling as he stared straight back into the King's eyes. _Dumbledore,_ he thought, _would be proud._

The King and the court seemed concerned, obviously all wondering what had given their secret away.

"Perhaps. Is there nothing that we can provide that would prove a suitable exchange?" Harry thought about it, seeing as the King obviously wanted to drop that matter for now.

"I do not know, Your Majesty. We have no need of manpower, our world's population is around six billion." Several eyebrows attempted to run and hide in peoples hair at that figure, surprised that any planet could be so populated. "We have no need for supplies of any kind, as were completely self sufficient, from what we've been told there are no strategic resources such as Naquadah on this planet. Lastly, of course, is that you do not have any superior technology that we would be interested in."

Harry was bluffing in the hopes that the King would reveal his hand; as despite Earth's large population, less than one percent knew anything about the Stargate.

"If, however, we could help you in the advancement and research of technologies, you would be willing to share knowledge of the, I believe you call it Stargate?" Harry nodded.

The King seemed pensive for several minutes before he finally replied.

"I believe you overestimate our technological prowess, Mr. Potter. That said, it is true that we have hidden much of our society underground and developed technologies to aid us in remaining hidden should the Goa'uld ever return." Harry fought against the smug expression that graced his face, he really did, but he couldn't help it. "I am not sure," the King continued, "how much our technologies may aid you, if you are as advanced as you purport yourselves to be."

Harry, however, had a sudden brilliant idea.

"Your Majesty, when reviewing the history of your people, we saw that the Goa'uld who once owned this planet had experiment on your ancestors, correct?" He received several nods of agreement as they looked very curious as to where he was going. "From what we've ascertained, both through the writings in the old pyramid and from our interaction, the experiments have left your race with exceptional mental capacities." A soft 'oh' from his left alerted him that Hermione had figured out where he was going with it.

"I believe that an agreement that would be mutually beneficial to both of us is that your scientists aid Earth in understanding advanced alien technologies that may be recovered through our many misadventures through the Stargate. We may both then benefit from said technologies, a win-win scenario you might say."

King Emhang smiled genuinely at that, he liked those kinds of scenarios.

Over the next two weeks details were hammered out and Earth had it's first official diplomatic treaty with the government of another planet. A small group of muggle scientists would live on Nythabu in their vast underground fortress and work with a Nythabian team of scientists to reverse engineer any alien technology that they come across. The Nythabians would form their own team to go explore as well, and both worlds would share mission reports on each planet that they go to.

Highly edited reports, to be sure.

Harry and the gang received a tour of the vast subterranean cities of Nythabu and were duly impressed. Most of the Nythabian technologies were geared towards aiding in their survival underground, such as advanced life support systems and such. All things considered, they were probably slightly ahead of Earth technologically in most fields. That didn't mean that the muggle scientists weren't able to help them in certain areas, most especially things like astrophysics.

The sleek little gun that Harry had seen turned out to be not much more than a glorified taser, however.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: ** I don't own Harry Potter or Stargate, I make no money off of either and am simply writing this for my own enjoyment.

**The Gateway of Mysteries**

**2002 A.D. – June 10**

**Market District**

**Planet: Gillamarai – Ceravia Catai**

"You know, two years of travelling through the gate, and this is the first one we've found," remarked Harry Potter as he walked through the streets of a fairly advanced alien world. "Honestly, I'm a bit shocked that it was the first. I suppose most other worlds haven't advanced to that level yet, eh Nick?"

'Nick', actually Niklas Hjorth, merely nodded silently as he listened to the inane ramblings of his team leader. Their escort, a burly soldier with a short and frankly rather pathetic beard, completely ignored Harry's commentary. Perhaps because he didn't understand it, not knowing English.

"Of course, you wouldn't expect to run into one off-world, naturally, but is it really that surprising? Oi! You three, guess what we saw!" Harry shouted that last bit out excitedly when he saw his other three team members, including his two best friends. Some of the local people looked faintly annoyed by his actions, but Harry didn't pay any attention to them.

"What's up mate?" asked Ron as he, Hermione and Imhotep arrived with their own escort. Ron and Hermione had gone with Imhotep as he went to study some more of the Gillamaran history.

"Nick and I made a shocking discovery, didn't we Nick?" Niklas nodded at Harry's question. "We found a McDonald's!" Harry proclaimed happily. "They've gone galactic." Ron was confused, Imhotep simply rolled his eyes and Hermione laughed.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, Nick and I were looking for a place to eat, right, when we saw the golden...err, octagon in a circle...s," Harry finished somewhat lamely. "Well, the sign is a bit different, obviously, and the name, but it's a McDonald's, I swear. Same colours and same sort of food, alien food of course, but still, fast food you know."

"That's..." Hermione trailed off, apparently not really sure what that was.

"Did they have french fries?" asked Imhotep, staring down the street hungrily.

"No, not exactly," Harry cast about for the right words to describe the odd food. "It was, well, the meal I ordered came with a bunch of long greenish fry-like objects, but they didn't taste like fries. They had a, I don't know, what would you say Nick? A bit of a bland fruity taste to them, yeah?" Niklas nodded. "Not bad, really."

"Huh, hamburgers too?" Imhotep inquired.

"Yeah, sort of, actually tasted more like pork, I think, and it was a sort of yellowish brown colour." Ron, who had no idea what a McDonald's was, had by this time become quite interested in the whole thing. He was looking back towards where Harry and Niklas had come from longingly, but they had to go.

"We need to get to the gate Ron, but next time we come, I'll show you the place, eh? We'll even take you to a McDonald's when we get back to Earth, right Hermione?" Hermione rolled her eyes and Harry had the feeling that _she _wouldn't be taking Ron to McDonald's any time soon.

As the team made their way down to the gate they arrived just in time to see it activating and another team come out.

The address for this planet had not come from the database they found on Abydos, but instead from one they had found on Earth.

A couple of teams had been sent to search around for potential alien artefacts that had been left behind by the Goa'uld or other races. They'd found a surprising number of things, and even a few Goa'uld. A sarcophagus was found in Mexico that had a real living Goa'uld Queen named Hathor inside of it. She to use her feminine charm against the wizards, but due both to the number of females working in the program and the wizards resistance to whatever she was using, it failed.

After all, she didn't even come close to a Veela.

They had also found to canopic jars that had Isis and Osiris respectively, the former was already dead but the latter was alive and well. The wizards and muggles alike were thrilled with the chance to study Osiris, and even the dead Isis. Harry wasn't sure what they had learned from it, but hopefully whatever it was would come in useful down the road.

They had also discovered a hidden ship in Egypt that, they found out, had belonged to Osiris. It wasn't a large one by any means, and they didn't really have a clue how to run the thing, but they were happy nonetheless.

It was in Britain however that they had made their greatest discovery. Some sort of ancient laboratory that was mostly bare save for many strange writings. Most of the writings were in some odd form of blockish lettering that none of the wizards could decipher. However there was one ancient tome that they could 'read', a list of stargate addresses.

What was more, almost every single address was a new one that hadn't been listed at Abydos. That meant, they hoped at least, that these were addresses of planets unknown to the Goa'uld. With that thought in mind, they sent Harry and his team to the first address.

The Gillamarans had been as shocked as the Unspeakables when the gate activated. They had never been able to discern the meaning of the Stargate, partly because they had no GDD (Gate Dialling Device) and thus no idea how to activate it. They had however rightly assumed that it was the product of some advanced society and likely an alien one at that. When SET-One stepped out of the gate, this finally proved their theories correct.

Of course, the lack of a GDD meant that Harry and his team needed to work with the Gillamarans in Ceravia Catai on devising a method of dialling without a GDD. Thankfully, the Gillamarans were rather clever people and devised a sort of computer program that would do just that. Harry and his team were able to check in with command before getting to know the people around them.

Ceravia Catai was just one city out of many, the planet had a population of just over two billion, further proof to Harry that the Goa'uld knew nothing of the planet.

Ceravia Catai had been, thankfully, the best place for his team to get help with dialling home as it seemed to be the 'intellectual capital' of the planet. Partly, he assumed, because of the Stargate.

The cities name even came from the Stargate. Ceraz was their word for 'portal', which they had rightly assumed the gate was. Vias was the Gillamaran word for 'celestial', making Ceravia 'The Celestial Portal', or 'Stargate'. Catai was, roughly speaking, 'city' and should not be confused with 'Catae' which turned out to be something Harry thought to be vaguely similar to a Crumple-Horned Snorkack.

Harry had taken pictures to give to Luna for verification.

"Hey Bernie," Harry greeted the leader of SET-Six, the primary diplomatic team in the program which was headed by Frenchmen Jérémie Bernier.

"Liaz murqi vrud sasea Potter."

Harry stared blankly at him for a moment, having not learned enough of the local language to adequately figure out what he was saying. So instead Harry wisely replied with, "Back at ya Bernie."

"This, Potter, is why I'm the diplomat." Harry already knew that much. "You didn't disrupt relations while I was gone, did you?" Harry thought that the French diplomat was being quite rude.

"I," Harry replied in as dignified a tone as he could, "have naught but improved relations! Honestly mate, aliens love me. I even, in the interest of furthering cultural understanding between our two peoples, have exchanged knowledge of cursing. So amuc olesan, wumli." Harry was, perhaps, a little too chuffed at his ability to curse now in nine different alien languages.

"How nice Potter, now if you don't mind, some of us have real work to do." Bernier and his team members quickly headed out toward the makeshift embassy that had been built in the city while Harry led his team to the gate.

"Dial home Ron." Once Ron had dialled Earth Harry brought out his communications mirror and verified that they were coming through. A minute later they were all back safe and sound on their own little planet.

"SET-One, you're requested to report to medical, debriefing will be in Briefing Room Three at ten." A disembodied voice informed them in the gateroom. Too somebody who didn't know any better, the gateroom would seem to be nothing more than a large square room with bare stone walls. Mostly, it was, too. However, directly before the Stargate was a bare wall that was in fact an illusion covering a large glass window where the people who ran gate operations were stationed. They could see out into the room just fine. On each side of the room, there were doors that were likewise covered by an illusion and only somebody who knew they were there could see through it.

Harry was halfway to the door when the gate suddenly activated again, an alarm sounded and a few wizards came through each side prepared to deal with whatever came through. Harry noted that they didn't shield the gate, which would have prevented anybody or anything from materializing, which likely meant that an off world team was coming in under fire.

His assumptions were proven right when three people came hurtling through the gate, two of them supporting the third from what he realized was SET-Three, Neville's team. Sure enough, moments later a woman came running through followed by Neville Longbottom who was yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Shield the damn thing, for the love of Merlin shield.." he was cut off however as some massive black beast came through the gate before the shield ward had been brought up. It seemed momentarily disoriented before launching it's self at Neville. Harry, along with the rest of the rooms occupants, instantly had their wand up but were all too slow.

Neville had already turned and, surprisingly calmly, raised his wand and fired a rather potent blasting hex right in the creatures face. Unsurprisingly, the ape-like creature was sent backwards through the new inactive Stargate without it's head and a good chunk of it's chest.

"Hey guys," Neville greeted Harry and the gang, "good to see you back."

"Yeah, you too Neville," Harry replied as the group began walking towards the Medical Wing, "anything interesting happen while we were away."

"Yeah, you know that annoying muggle scientist, the Canadian?" Neville received nods from SET-One, they had all had that misfortune. "Well, he's leaving, got some high paying job offer from the American military or something."

"Ah, such a shame, I'll miss him I will."

"It's okay Ron, he hasn't left yet, you can still go say goodbye."

Ron, of course, had absolutely no desire to do that. "I'll pass on that, thanks."

Shortly after being released from the evil witches that ran medical, all of which made Madame Pomfrey seem reasonable, they were sitting in Briefing Room Three for their debriefing.

"Well Sir," Harry explained their week on Gillamarai, "after we arrived and were set up in our rooms, we had dinner with the Supreme Chancellor at the Palace of Fraima. Didn't really discuss anything of interest except what we were going to be doing during our week there and some literature."

"Don't forget his daughter was flirting with you, Harry," reminded Ron, who received a glare from Harry.

"Yes, there was that. Anyway," he briefly glared at Ron again before continuing, "the next morning we had breakfast with Jeraz Mablutte who is the Minister of Arts, and his wife. We then toured several museums; a natural history museum, a modern arts museum, a classical arts museum, a museum of technological innovations. We also visited a zoo, pretty neat, you may want to send the zoologists to check some of that out. Then, after dinner, we had a night at the opera."

"Anything of interest, Potter?" asked Jan Lewandowski, a Polish wizard who was Head of the Division of Intergalactic Cooperation.

"Yes Sir, Minister Mablutte expressed an interest in visiting some museums on Earth, to get a better understanding of our art. I told him I'd see if we could fit him in with a private tour of the Louvre."

Director Lewandowski nodded, "that can be arranged."

"Okay, so the next morning we toured the facilities for their Space Program, got a bit of history on that. So far they've only ever sent out three probes which have went beyond their solar system, just basic things sort of like, uh, whatever those NASA probes were, Voyager? Anyway, like them. Their manned space program is likely a bit more advanced than the muggles here. They're able to mine on a nearby asteroid belt and have a large space station in orbit, as well as a space station on one of their two moons."

"What do they mine?" enquired the Head of Exploration and Defence, Lawrence Gilmour.

"Well, the asteroid belt is roughly in about the same position as Mars is to Earth. As for what they mine, there are a few types of metal, including some minor amounts of naquadah which is not naturally occurring on their planet. Mostly they mine Trinium, which like the Tollan they use in a number of their technologies. There were a few other minerals that they mined that we were completely unfamiliar with. Hermione has all the scans and will include them in our full report."

"Good. Shame they don't have any Naquadah, we could use a more reliable source of that." Director Gilmour had mentioned not long ago to Harry that the Goa'uld were starting to increase security on their mining worlds do to large quantities of Naquadah going missing. Naturally they blamed each other for the theft and never suspected Earth, but it was only a matter of time before they got caught.

"Do you think that they would be willing to trade for the Trinium, Potter?" asked Director Lewandowski.

"They seemed open to the idea, yes," Hermione answered for Harry. "They were also interested in Uranium, as apparently they've only ever discovered very minuscule amounts of it on their planet. They're interested in Naquadah as well, of course." Hermione was their unofficial muggle-tech person, as she spent a significant amount of her 'free time' researching muggle science. She was even considering trying to get a degree from a muggle university eventually, but was nowhere near that stage yet.

"Aren't we all, very well, carry on Potter."

"Yes sir, so we ended up being allowed to visit their space station, the orbital one not the lunar one. It was rather large, certainly dwarfs anything the muggles here have done. Their space program, we've learned, is only about thirty or so years old, as they'd never really had much interest in space before, aside from astronomy. Don't know why though, I mean, they had figured out that the Stargate was a portal to other worlds." Harry shrugged, that bit had been bugging him for some time now. They were a very intelligent group that certainly had both the intellectual and productive resources to become a space fairing race, yet they chose not to.

"I might have the answer to that," Imhotep spoke up. "Apparently, several thousand years ago some sort of, I guess you'd say Prophet, warned them about travelling amongst the stars."

"Oh? What kind of Prophet? Like a Seer or something?" asked Harry.

"No, I don't think so, though I'm not sure. According to legend, it was a being of energy, not a human."

"Of energy?" asked an interested Hermione.

"Yes, the best I could describe would perhaps be a sort of...I don't know, like a Patronus only an actual living and sentient being of some sort. Apparently, according to the Prophet, a 'Great Evil' lurked amongst the stars, and to walk amongst them would be to bring 'Great Death' upon their people." As Imhotep finished the group lapsed into a thoughtful silence that was eventually broken by Hermione.

"It's possible that this, er, 'being' isn't real and that the description is either an embellishment or the result of some sort of hallucination or something of that nature. You could describe it as an 'angel' of a sort, like many religions here on Earth believe in."

"Or," Harry added, "there is a race of beings that are made of pure energy."

"Well, yes, there is that. But why would they give out such a warning?"

"Dunno."

"Well, regardless, it does explain their reluctance to go beyond their own system and their reluctance to travel via the gate. Regardless, their technological and industrial resources could be of an immense help to us, bigger even than if they were interested in gate travel." Harry nodded at Director Gilmour's assessment, he felt that they had the exploration thing down and their 'allies' doing the same would only get in the way.

"You think they'd be willing to help us with production of alien technologies, sir?" asked Hermione. Production was a big issue for them, as they didn't really have the resources to do so without alerting the muggles, and the muggles would undoubtedly try to take over gate operations.

"I hope so Miss Granger, I hope so. We could use their production capabilities even more than their Trinium. Especially if we ever build any sort of space craft. That's what SET-Six has gone there to find out," he informed the team before turning back to Harry.

"What else did you do."

"Oh, not much, Imhotep did his research into their culture and history and some ruins while Nick and I researched the native culinary establishments."

"Okay, good. I'll expect a detailed report on my desk by the end of the week, Mr. Potter. Mr. Neferankh," Imhotep's head popped up to listen, "I want a full report on everything you've learned of their culture and history, same time as Potter's. Understood?" Everybody nodded that they had in fact understood. "Good, you're needed in MRD so go see Spears." With that they were dismissed.

**2002 A.D. – June 10**

**Magical Research Department – Magical Devices Section**

**Planet: Earth – Unplottable Location in Wales**

MRD, the Magical Research Department, was a subsection of the Division of Research and Development of Magic and Technologies. This department, obviously, focused on the magical aspects of their research. The Magical Devices Section focused on creating new toys for them to play with, such as the Mirror Probe that they sent to planets to see if it was safe.

Tony Spears, an enthusiastic American was head of the Section and was always looking for people to test his little experiments.

"Ah, you'll like this Potter, we've been working on 'em with you in mind," Spears winked at Harry as he lead them through the labs. Harry wasn't sure if them producing anything with him in mind was a good thing, but he was willing to give it a chance.

When at last they made it to a lab in the back Harry saw a pair of familiar looking glasses lying on the table. "We've produced these," he pointed to the glasses, "and were hoping you'd be willing to give them a try."

"Wow," said Ron with mock awe, "you've finally managed to figure out how to make reading glasses. Wow."

"Hardly, Mr. Weasley." It was rather obvious that they wouldn't be making anything with Ron in mind for awhile. At least, nothing pleasant. "These glasses are highly enchanted and something similar, obviously with a better design, no offence Potter, could become standard issue in the future." Harry shrugged off the barb about his style, knowing that not everybody could pull it off as well as him.

"What do they do, though?" he asked, thinking of something like Mad-Eye Moody's magical eye.

"A number of things, really. You're familiar with Alastor Moody correct?" the trio of Brits nodded. "Well, it has similar abilities to see through objects as his eye. Not quite as powerful, however, but they can be dead useful nonetheless." Hermione immediately spotted a problem.

"But do they always do that? I mean, they wouldn't be much good if Harry keeps running into a wall because he can't see it there. And we all know he's completely blind without his glasses." Harry wasn't sure which part to be more upset about, that Hermione thought him likely to walk into things or that she made fun of his poor eyesight.

"Yes yes, of course Ms. Granger. It's part of the really unique aspect of the glasses. You see, you can control them to an extent with your mind. You need only think about seeing through objects, and the glasses should switch to that feature." Now that impressed Harry and the others. "It was damn tricky wandwork, let me tell you, but in the end we feel it works well." Spears was looking rather smug that they'd figured it out, and Harry figured he must have played a key role in that.

"So what else do they do?" he asked, rather interested now.

"Well, aside from a self updating prescription, they can be changed to see in the dark or to shield your eyes from bright light. The glasses also come with a charm to prevent anybody but the wearer from taking them off unless unconscious." Harry thought that was a good idea, as he now realised how lucky he was that nobody ever tried to summon his glasses. Being able to see in the dark would also be useful.

"Okay, so that's all?" Harry asked.

"Yes yes, don't get greedy. If they work out then we'll look into what else we can add into them, though I'm not sure there is much else. Unless you have any ideas?"

"Zoom," stated Ron, "you know, like Omnioculars." They all agreed that it was a valid suggestion, which Spears said they'd research immediately. For now, he gave the glasses to Harry to try on. The difference was amazing. He only now realized that he really needed to update his prescription, having not done so in years.

"Wicked."

"So, you'll wear them, yes? Tell us how they go? We'll look into any improvements we can make."

"Yeah, of course I will." Spears seemed inordinately thrilled. "So what else are you working on." His eyes flashed over to a dull grey wand-like object he saw sitting on a counter behind Spears.

"Oh, that?" asked the Yank looking torn. "Well, it's a, uh, well it's an attempt to make a wand. With Naquadah." He immediately had everyones interest. "You'll not be telling anybody about that," he added sternly.

"Of course, so what's wrong with it?" Hermione asked interestedly.

"Well, as you know, Naquadah significantly amplifies many forms of energy, including magical." All five of them nodded at this, it was well known throughout the project. "Well, obviously because of this we asked ourselves the question: can we make a wand of it?" The others were nodding, every one of them had had a similar thought at some point. Harry was sure everybody involved in the project had.

"Unfortunately, it's not that easy. It amplifies alright, and we can easily charge it with magic, but we can't find a way to focus it. As it is, the magic either doesn't go anywhere and just stays in the wand until it fades, or it goes everywhere. Trust me, that's not good." Harry didn't think it would be, he'd rather hate to accidentally stun himself or a teammate.

"We've tried various methods of focusing it, but standard wand foci don't work and rune carvings don't help either. We do have one theory, but we've not been able to test it out yet."

Hermione couldn't help herself, she had to ask what it was.

"You know that in ancient times wizards used staffs, yes?" They all nodded again, they were getting good at the action. "Well, staffs are much to big to use a traditional modern focus, so they used instead a type of crystal." Seeing the confused faces he smirked and continued. "A type of crystal called Mage Stone, it seems to have the ability to not only focus magic in a direction but also, hmm, purify the magic. Or, perhaps a better term would be to refine the magic a bit."

"What do you mean, refine the magic?" asked Imhotep.

"Well, it weakens the raw power of the magic to a degree, but the overall effect of the magic is significantly enhanced," explained the now pacing researcher. "The problem is obtaining some, it's not naturally occurring so you have to make it through an alchemical process." At this he stopped to look at his audience, seeing that they were all suitably awed by that.

"It is in fact one of the most important aspects of creating the Philosopher's Stone, and also one of the most difficult. The Philosopher's Stone is actually Mage Stone, however the magical processes used to create the Elixir of Life and transmutation of metals to gold change the properties and give it the distinct red colour." Harry remembered that stone from the time he possessed the only known Philosopher's Stone, he'd been saving it from Lord Voldemort at the time.

"In it's natural form, it various from a pale white to a pale green, usually a pale blue though. However it's absurdly difficult to make and we don't exactly have any instructions lying around."

"But, if they used to make it all the time for staves," asked Hermione, "then surely there must be some method passed down on how to do it."

"Oh, there have been, and we've been trying each and every one of them we can find, but it's tricky. This was one of the reasons Merlin was against staffs and they were banned throughout the wizarding world. Only old pureblood families knew the secrets and they weren't willing to share with others." Hermione huffed at that, knowing that most likely it done to prevent muggleborns from gaining power.

"Eventually some started crafting the modern wand, the Ollivander family was amongst the first to do so. Those who did not possess the secret resorted to using wands, which had two major advantages over the staff. They were easily concealed, obviously, and had more finesse than their larger cousins."

"Sorry, what?" Ron wasn't following.

"Staffs relied more on brute power than wands, where you could preform delicate movements and aim much more precisely." That made sense to Harry, aiming a huge staff would likely be pretty awkward. "Since more and more people started using wands, either for lack of knowing how to make Mage Stone or because they lacked the resources to make it, they soon began to outnumber the staff users."

"Since staffs stopped being used the art has slowly been lost, now we only know rumours and hearsay and legends passed down," he finished sadly.

"But, I'm sure I've read about some tribes of wizards using staves, like the Shamans and Chieftains and such in America or Africa." Harry wasn't surprised, Hermione has read something on everything.

"No, they use particularly long wands, usually around twenty inches long in fact. Many do have peculiar ways of making them as well, but none have helped us thus far. They still rely on a traditional wand core."

The five of them left soon afterwards to their team's quarters, either resting or filling out reports. Their next mission wasn't for another week.

**2002 A.D. – June 17**

**The Gate Room**

**Planet: Earth – Unplottable Location in Wales**

"Right," said Ron as he was the last to make his way into the room. "So, desert planet today, huh?"

"Yup. Got your sunscreen on Ron?" Harry asked with a grin, the last time they'd went to a desert planet Ron had not enjoyed himself.

"Definitely," the redhead stated, scowling at Harry for making fun of him.

"SET-One, you're clear to leave. Good luck."

And so the quintet made their way through the Stargate on their next adventure. After about fifteen minutes of walking around, they'd had just about enough.

"Harry, I really don't think there is anything of interest here mate, unless we're in need of sand?"

"Yeah, I know mate, but we've got to stay a while longer before we can call it a day." Ron just nodded unhappily as they continued walk about aimlessly. At least until Hermione, who had been doing some magical scans to look for anything of interest, spoke up.

"Harry, we're not alone."

"What? What do you mean?" he asked, glancing about but seeing nothing but sand.

"We're surrounded by Goa'uld." They'd developed a special detection spell that could tell if somebody were a Goa'uld or not, which they tried to subtly use whenever they met people.

"Right. Nick?" Harry looked at the large Swede who had already been muttering to himself and bringing up a protective barrier. Once he finished he gave Harry a discreet nod.

Whenever any team used magic off world they had to be discreet, as they had all agreed early on that it would be best not to let anybody know about magic. When they did preform magic they tried to be as subtle and unnoticeable as possible, using misdirection and Notice-Me-Not charms liberally.

"Alright," Harry said to himself as much as the others. He cast a detection charm himself and, locating one hidden Goa'uld, fired off a round near it. "You can come out now, we know you're there Goa'uldy."

Ron was looking at him as if he'd grown a second head, mouthing _'Goa'uldy?'_ to him questioningly.

However it seemed to have worked, as a dozen enemies popped out of the sand with weapons trained on them. One, who seemed to be leading them, asked _"Who are you, and why have you come here?"_

"_Well, I'm Larry, that's Curly,"_ he pointed to Ron, _"Moe and Shemp"_ gesturing to Nick and Imhotep. _"And the lovely young lady is...Dolores."_ The others were trying their best not to look at Harry as if he'd gone insane, while Hermione glared at sharing a name with The Toad.

"_And who might you fine Goa'uld be?"_ Harry asked, still speaking in the Goa'uld language.

"_We are not Goa'uld!"_ one of them said forcefully, the others seemed to agree.

"_Oh? So you don't have a parasitical snake in your head controlling you? Funny, our scans says you do."_ Harry looked pensive for a moment as he glanced at the Goa'uld who were not a very happy bunch. _"I will admit, you lot certainly don't have the traditional Goa'uld fashion sense. And we've yet to be invited to worship your as our God. You guys are seriously crappy Goa'uld, do you know that?"_

Hermione looked like she seriously wanted to slap Harry over the head, but he ignored her.

"_We are not Goa'uld, we are Tok'ra!"_ they declared.

"_Oh, okay, so you're rebellious Goa'uld who want to take Ra's place, that doesn't make you any less Goa'uldy, does it?"_ The Goa'uld were becoming rather angry now, Harry could see, and they were all muttering and proclaiming themselves not to be Goa'uld. Eventually one of them, younger than the leader, stepped forward and held up a hand for silence.

"_You are Tau'ri, are you not?"_ he asked, apparently their reputation proceeded them. _"We are the Tok'ra, please, we mean you no harm. I am Martouf,"_ he introduced himself, _"Why have the tau'ri come here?"_

Harry decided to answer this Martouf honestly, he had a creeping suspicion that there was something funny about these Goa'uld. The Goa'uld that they knew, which weren't many to be honest, didn't usually go around in packs. Most Goa'uld would surely have sent Jaffa to deal with this situation. Then there was the fact that they were wearing plain tan uniforms to help blend into the desert. Harry had never heard of a Goa'uld not wearing something ostentatious and often over the top. Lastly, they had yet to proclaim their divinity or use some other cliché line as they often did.

"_We're explorers,"_ Harry said simply, which was correct of course.

"_So...you just happened upon this world by chance?"_ asked the Tok'ra suspiciously, and Harry could understand their suspicion. _"Very well,"_ he seemed willing to take their explanation at face value for now, _"perhaps we should clear up any misunderstanding?"_ Harry thought that was a brilliant idea.

"_We are not like the Goa'uld, the Tok'ra enjoy a truly symbiotic relationship between host and symbiote. We would never take a human host without their permission, that is why we are different from the Goa'uld."_ Harry nodded at the explanation, it seemed both reasonable and plausible, but he wasn't going to just take their word for it. He gave Hermione a significant look, and she pulled her wand out.

"_If you don't mind, Martouf, we're going to need a bit more proof than that. Can we talk to your host? What is his name?"_

Martouf's head dipped as he gave control over to the host, who smiled and spoke softly, _"My name is Martouf, my symbiote's name is Lantash. What did you wish to ask me?"_ Hermione had given her wand a couple of small waves while he spoke.

"_Er, if I may ask, why in Merlin's name would anybody agree to become a host?"_ Harry didn't want to be rude, but he couldn't think of a gentle way of asking. He really wanted an answer to that, as he couldn't come up with anything himself.

"_Several reasons," _smiled the Tok'ra, _"when I blended with Lantash I acquired all his knowledge and experiences, it allowed me to be a part of a resistance against the Goa'uld, and I enjoy extended life in perfect health."_ Harry accepted the explanation, they were all valid enough reasons he supposed. Harry himself didn't like the idea of having another being inside of him, potentially controlling him, but that could just be his past experiences. He looked over at Hermione who seemed to have finished.

"So?"

"Well, I can't be sure, as it's all theory right now since we've not had a chance to test it, but if it's right then it was the host talking. There seemed to be no control being exerted by the symbiote." Harry understood, it was one of the spells their research department had come up with for situations like this. If it worked as it was supposed to, it should have been able to tell who out of the host and symbiote was in control while doing anything active. Just standing around and breathing wouldn't work, they'd have to be moving or talking.

"Okay Hermione, sounds good to me." Harry turned back to the Tok'ra, _"Alright, we're prepared to believe you, for now," _he added the last to make sure they knew he'd be watching them. _"Perhaps you can take us to your leader so that we may learn more abut each other? Maybe see if it's possible that our two people can help one another, our goals are similar in that we both want the defeat of the Goa'uld."_

Martouf looked at the older Tok'ra who seemed to be in charge, the man considered them for a moment before agreeing. Harry and his team followed the Tok'ra to a hidden ring platform after giving up their guns and soon found themselves underground in some elaborate tunnels of crystal. Once in the tunnels they met Garshaw of Belote, the Grand Council of the Tok'ra High Council. She seemed intrigued on why they were out exploring the galaxy, and that's when Harry explained how Bastet sent Jaffa through their gate.

"_Bastet you say? Most intriguing. Bastet has in recent years become rather recluse and secretive, many amongst the Goa'uld are suspicious of her actions. We did not understand what may have caused this, however, it could be more than coincidence that it happens after visiting your planet."_ Harry agreed, growing concerned over what Bastet may be up to after having captured two Unspeakables.

"_She has also, reportedly, gone through three hosts in the past two years."_ Garshaw mentioned offhandedly. Harry raised an eyebrow as he, like the rest of his team, were wondering if it could have had anything to do with magic.

"_What else can you tell us about Bastet?"_ asked Imhotep.

"_Hmm, she is a member of the System Lords and known to be ruthless and cunning towards her enemies, yet..."_ she seemed to pause to try and find the right words, _"unusually compassionate for a Goa'uld, at least towards women and children on conquered worlds. Her armies are exceedingly well trained and are known to defeat larger armies. She's also extremely mistrustful, we have always had trouble infiltrating her ranks."_

They continued to talk in very general terms about the state of the galaxy, which the people from Earth were largely ignorant of. Eventually they made their way to how the two sides could help one another, and there was apparently only one way that the tau'ri could help the Tok'ra.

"_Yeah...I don't think that's going to happen." _Harry replied when asked if they'd be willing to be hosts.

"_What else can you offer us? You've no resources or advanced technology, you are no use to us," _she replied heatedly. _"How can we be allies when the vary idea of us disgusts you so?"_ Harry thought she made a rather good point there. Unfortunately he couldn't really think of anything of value they could offer in return, other than additional manpower which they seemed to think they didn't need. Except for hosts of course.

"_Alright then,"_ Harry said, _"so you'll be letting us go now?"_

"_No, we cannot allow you to leave knowing the location of our base, it would be too dangerous."_ Harry understood of course, but he wasn't keen on the idea of being a prisoner.

"Right then, ready guys?" he asked his team, and as one they all apparated to the Stargate and dialled home. "You know, that could have gone a lot better."

Nick shrugged, "Not really."

"Right, yeah, the whole host thing would never fly with anyone back home."

"I'm hungry."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "You're always hungry Ron."

It took a couple of hours for Ron to get his food however, as they had to do a debriefing first and the men in charge were very interested in what they learned of the Goa'uld and the Tok'ra. They agreed that allowing a wizard to be a host, or even a magically aware muggle, would be impossible.

"Even if we did offer muggles as hosts, you know, like some dying muggle or something, I don't think they'd ever be true allies. They may not be traditional Goa'uld, but they're just as arrogant, they'd use us for their own purposes and ignore us the rest of the time." Everybody seemed to agree with Harry's assessment, not a one of them trusted a Goa'uld no matter how 'good' they were.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: ** I don't own Harry Potter or Stargate, I make no money off of either and am simply writing this for my own enjoyment.

**Author's Note:** I had meant to have this out sooner, but I was delayed by excitement that my Colts made the Super Bowl, then anticipation of the Super Bowl, and then depression from losing the Super Bowl. All of that slowed things down a bit.

**The Gateway of Mysteries**

**2002 A.D. – July 30**

**Conference Room Five**

**Planet: Earth – Alpha Base**

Harry and his band of merry men and one merry woman were seated in a large conference room with several other SET teams listening to Director Lawrence Gilmour speak about their next project.

"...so we will be having each of your teams spend a bit of time monitoring the Goa'ulds Ra, Kronos, Apophis and Heru'ur. Any questions? Yes Weiss?"

"Sir, not that we're not willing, but shouldn't this be a job for Recon?" Harry thought it was a reasonable question, as generally spying as they were being asked to do was Recon's job.

"Usually, yes, however as I've said we're not one hundred percent certain that our charms and wards will hold up over the prolonged scrutiny of spying on a System Lord in their own court. For that reason, we need teams that could fight their way out if needed, the Recon boys have been trained for infiltration and information gathering, not combat."

There were a few other questions that the Director answered before giving out who would be going where. "...and finally SET-One, you guys are the lucky ones, Ra's yours for a week."

"Joy," Harry said dryly, though he'd actually not seen Ra yet during the course of any of their travels. Harry and his team had met several System Lords during their misadventures through the gate, including Kali, Svarog, Yu, Ba'al and of course Morrigan's breasts. At least, all Harry really remembered from that incident were Morrigan's breasts, but in his defence she was practically shoving them in his face.

It would have been rude not to give them a proper look over.

"Also we'll be using Hermes Base, so be prepared to gate over there." Hermes Base was one of three off-world bases that they had been working on. Hermes Base was constructed to be a crossroads for all of Earth's gate travel in the future. Any team going off-world would gate first the Hermes Base and then to their destination, and any team coming from off-world would gate first to Hermes Base.

Alpha Base, where they were now, was to be protected with a rather ingenious trinium shield that the muggles had developed. The 'iris' sits just far enough off of the event horizon of the Stargate that anything or anybody that tried to come through would not be able to materialize fully. That's not to say they didn't maintain a series of wards over and around the gate as well, but you can never have too much protection. The iris would only open upon being impacted by a specific magical spell signature, which only a few people knew, most of whom were at Hermes Base.

If for some reason you could not get to Earth (Alpha Base) or Hermes Base, you'd have to go either to Beta Base which was a secondary command base or Coeus Base, which was an off-world research facility. The names, obviously, came from Greek mythology as it seemed there were few Goa'uld named after the Greeks, and everybody thought they sounded like an impressive bunch.

The Greeks that is, not the Goa'uld.

Hermes was chosen for two reasons, one was that he was a patron God of Travellers and another that he was the patron of Thieves. The SEDP did spend an awful lot of time stealing Naquadah and other resources right from under the noses of the Goa'uld. Magic was quite useful in that regard, as none of the Goa'uld knew who was stealing from them and they all fought amongst each other because of it.

Coeus was chosen for the research facility as he was a Titan of Wisdom and Intellect, which seemed fitting for the group of people who worked there. Everybody on Earth had been extremely happy to see Rodney McKay shipped off to Coeus Base, they even had a party celebrating it after he left.

Coeus however was not only for the wizards and muggles of Earth, but also their new allies. Besides the Gillamarans and Nythabians whom Harry and his team had made contact with, other teams had formed alliances with Orbanians, Semlynians and Eurondans.

The Orbanians were a civilization that had developed a form of nanite which, when implanted into children, could absorb all that the young children learn. The nanites were then removed in a ceremony called Averium and implanted into the rest of the population, who then learned all that the child had learned. The process made learning very easy for the Orbanians, but the children who had been Urrone (one that had been host to the learning nanites) could not benefit from this. Neville had been able to convince the Orbanians that the Urrone children could be taught, simply that they'd have to be taught the old fashioned way.

The Semlynians were a curious people who, like the Gillamarans, had a very large population that had never really brought any attention on themselves because of a prophecy. Harry was starting to think that there might be something to these 'glowy' energy people. After a bit of negotiating however, they'd been convinced to join our worthy cause, at least with regards to research and production. Neither they nor the Gillamarans were too keen to take the battle to the Goa'uld, but that was okay. For now.

The Eurondans were a fairly advanced race that had contacted Earth for help, believing Earth to be where they were from originally. They were happy to give us loads of technological information in return for water, or heavy water, but Harry didn't really have a clue what was so special about it. However the team that had made contact with them quickly found that these people were no more than extraterrestrial Nazis. With a bit of cleverness however, two SEDP teams were sent to take over the underground bunker and curse the leadership of Space Nazis, and made contact with the other side in the war.

The 'Breeders' (as the Nazis had called them) made an alliance with Earth and thanked the wizards profusely for their help in bringing an end to the war. The Nazi wannabes were all taken prisoner and the planet celebrated peace for the first time in a generation. Their planet was still badly damaged though from the war, but they were able to offer some scientists to help in understanding their advanced technology and in furthering it even more.

Of course, they wouldn't be much use in actually fighting the war, which seemed to be theme amongst Earth's allies.

Coeus Base had been opened a month ago as part of a ceremony for the signing of the League of Free Humans, which was an alliance that the SEDP leadership had formed with them. The purpose of the league was to unite the more advanced societies of humans that were not controlled by the Goa'uld and pool their resources. Things seemed to be going well, too, as scientists from all six races were exchanging ideas and working to create weapons and technologies to both defend and benefit all of the civilizations.

Several SET teams had been sent out on missions specifically to acquire advanced technology, like ships or weapons, so that the scientists at Coeus could study them. Neville's team had actually managed to steal a Ha'tak from Moloc and take it back to Coeus, a tale which they heard numerous times over the last week from Neville. They had some help from a few of Moloc's Jaffa who were held under the Imperius Curse and forced to fly the ship.

The hope was that eventually, within the next couple of years, they could start building a fleet of ships capable of standing up to the Goa'uld. The ships would, naturally, be constructed on Gillamarai and Semlynus who had the population and industrial resources to build the ships. Still, that would be years off in the future most likely, and right now the SEDP focus was on keeping the Goa'uld focused on each other and not poor little Earth.

Which was one of the reasons they were going to be doing a bit of spying. Thus far we didn't think that any of the Goa'uld, except Bastet, had suspected Earth of being up to anything. Bastet, it would seem, had decided to keep that her little secret.

Ultimately the goal was to spy on Bastet herself, but nobody knew just how much she had figured out about magic, if anything at all. The fact that she had changes hosts several times since sending her minions to Earth had the higher ups concerned. She was up to something, and it couldn't simply be a coincidence that it started soon after her abducting two wizards from the Department of Mysteries.

**2002 A.D. – August 12**

**Entrance Room**

**Planet: Apotropaia - Hermes Base**

Harry and the others stepped out of the Stargate as casually as ever before coming to a complete stop as they took in the room around them. The room was large and bare save for the Stargate and the ramp leading up to it, and a giant unblinking eye embedded into the wall directly across from them.

Suffice it to say, the eye was more than a little disconcerting when you saw it for the first time.

"Blimey! What the bloody hell is that?" asked Ron, wide eyed.

"Oh, oh ho, I get it, Apotropaic Eye, Apotropaism, the planet is named Apotropaia," this was all supposed to mean something to them, but nobody got it. Hermione explained, "Apotropaism is supposed to be magic used to ward off evil, at least that's what the ancient Greeks thought. You see, it's probably used to detect if we're Goa'uld or under any spells or anything like that." Harry shrugged, he assumed that Hermione must be right.

Nobody had told them what to expect at Hermes Base, as it was all very secretive, so Harry didn't know what the eye was supposed to do. However, Hermione's logic sounded reasonable, but Harry wished the eye or whomever was controlling it would finish what they were doing.

Or blink, at the least.

A moment after Harry had that thought, a door shimmered into existence to their left and a wizard came strolling through.

"Ah, SET-One, good to see you made it on time. Come with me if you will," he quickly turned and walked back through the door. Harry and the others hurried after him as he led them through a series of corridors and through several doors before entering another gate room.

"And this is the Embarkation Room, where we bid you adieu," he smiled at them as the gate, which had been in the process of dialling when they arrived in the room, finished.

"Er, why do you, uh, have two Stargates?" Harry asked, finding the whole experience to be a little odd, even for wizards.

"This gate only goes out, the other only comes in," he said as if it were something incredibly simple.

"But how?" asked Hermione, "I mean, how can you stop one from allowing people in and the other from allowing people out."

"A series of wards, computers, and ingenuity Ms. Granger, now you'll be needing to leave," his tone left no room for argument and they made their way to the gate after disillusioning themselves and casting other charms to prevent the Jaffa and Goa'uld from seeing them.

Harry wondered how Hermes base worked, and how they'd acquired a second Stargate. He knew from the studying he'd had to do over the past couple of years that if a Stargate had no power then not only could you not dial out, but you couldn't dial in. Perhaps they simply sapped the embarkation gate of all it's power after the wormhole closed? The entrance gate would likely always have power, but no dialling device to interact with.

It was also a surprised to hear that they were using computers. He knew that the muggles and enchanters had been working on making computers that were capable of working amongst magic, but he hadn't heard that they succeeded yet. He was sure they couldn't be simple muggle computers, as the moment he stepped through the entrance gate he could feel magic, the place had to be as highly enchanted as Hogwarts.

However Harry was unable to continue thinking much about it as they had arrived at their destination and he needed to focus on the task at hand. The guards around the gate were looking about suspiciously, but seemed to be unable to find anything. A few of them had the glazed expression of somebody who had just experienced some memory or sensory altering magic.

The group quickly made their way towards the Pyramid Ship where Ra would hold court. It was almost too easy for them to do with the use of magic. A Disillusionment Charm made them appear mostly invisible, especially when moving, but it still would take a keen eye to see them. A Notice-Me-Not Charm helped further increase their stealth, causing their enemies to overlook the quartet as they scurried about, even if they did have a keen eye. Lastly a Misdirection Charm, which really is a must have for any invisible person as it keeps people from bumping into them. Those three charms, a few silencing spells and a few uses of the Imperius Curse got them to Ra's court.

Once there they found secluded spot well out of the way where Niklas began setting up several wards and enchantments that went unnoticed by the Goa'uld. Ron and Hermione went about setting up a magical, and highly enchanted, tent where they would rest and plan. It was enchanted so that it could only be seen by the five members of Harry's team, several of the enchanters, the heads of the program and the leader of each SET and RECON team.

All in all, a rather brilliant piece of work, in Harry's opinion.

Harry himself was standing behind Niklas, who had already raised several wards to keep people from seeing or hearing them. He looked out at the court to see that Ra himself was not there, at least not yet. There were some guards and what looked to be several human children and a couple of cats. He hoped this wasn't going to be a total waste of a week.

There was one member of the team that was missing from this mission, their linguist and diplomat Imhotep Neferankh was on leave back in his native Egypt. Harry felt sorry for his friend, whose dad had died just before they left for the mission. Harry told him to return home and be with his family, and he didn't put up much of a fight.

It had been a little over two years ago that Imhotep's sister and mother had been killed by nomadic raiders from the Sahara. There were groups of nomads in that massive desert, wizarding nomads, who ventured from place to place buying and selling various things. Mostly dark and illegal things. They also raided any hapless wizards, or even muggles, that they came across. They hadn't actually found Imhotep's sister and Harry knew that deep down his friend still harboured some hope that she was alive.

Personally, Harry thought that if she were alive she'd be better off dead. He's heard stories about those nomads and some of the things they did, stories that made him want to go to Africa and hunt them all down.

"Finished," reported Niklas as he lowered his wand, admiring his handiwork and giving a nod.

"Good job Nick." Ron and Hermione had finished setting up the tent and they all went inside, where is was a comfortable apartment with a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom and four small bedrooms. There were only four bedrooms because usually somebody would awake and keeping watch. It wasn't particularly large inside, but it was comfortable, which was nice enough. The bedrooms had one bed big enough for one person, a small dresser and a mirror.

"Alright guys, Ron, how about you take first watch. Tell us if it looks like anything of interest is happening. Hermione, you'll follow, then me, then Nick. Okay?" Everybody nodded went about their business. While Ron was sitting outside on comfortable recliner (which was actually part of the tent) Hermione went about studying from a muggle science book. Niklas took out a quill and parchment and began writing a report that had been requested by Director Gilmour of all the warding experts on how their skills have helped so far in their adventures through the Stargate.

Harry found himself shuffling through multitudes of mission reports from other SET teams, seeing how they went about doing things or how they reacted in certain situations. He also studied how the Goa'uld or other enemies reacted during missions. He had some spell books with him to read as well, and books on magical strategy. It was an unofficial requirement that everybody involved in the program must continue improving themselves, as nobody involved cared much for slackers on a project this big.

For the next three days that was pretty much all they did, read or talk amongst themselves. Every once in awhile one of Harry, Ron or Hermione would go out and search around the place for anything of interest.

It was early on the fourth day that they started noticing something was happening. The whole court seemed busier than normal, with both Ra and Anubis, the human that lead his guard, making appearances throughout the day. From what any of us were able to overhear, there was going to be some sort of meeting later that night with several other Goa'uld. By the time the first Goa'uld showed up in the early evening, all four members of SET-One were stand outside of the tent ready to see what was happening.

The first Goa'uld to appear was Apophis, who entered looking rather arrogant with a human slave following him. Ba'al came immediately after, followed by Kali and Morrigan.

"Eugh, _her, _I hope you guys will be able to keeps your focus on the important things this time." Hermione seemed to look mostly at me and Ron.

"We will Hermione," Ron assured, "we'll keep an eye on both of them." Ron glanced back towards the buxom Goa'uld who as usual was showing off a fair amount of cleavage. Hermione grumbled something that Harry was sure to be very uncomplimentary of Ron as the next Goa'uld entered.

Yu, a Goa'uld who had taken on the persona of an Emperor instead of a God in ancient China, was the next one to arrive. A large black Goa'uld that Harry didn't know entered next, Hermione informed him that it was Olokun. Heru'ur and Kronos arrived next followed by Svarog and after ten minutes Harry thought that was the last of them, but the Goa'uld seemed to be waiting for another.

"_Where is she? I will not stand for this impudence!"_ declared Ra.

"_Bastet has never been one for punctuality, My Lord,"_ observed Ba'al, an observation that Yu seemed to agree with as he nodded and gave a grunt.

"_Perhaps she fears to come?"_ Apophis said, looking very much like he hoped that to be the case.

"_Do you think she is the one behind the attacks, Apophis?"_ asked Olokun, who seemed to be glaring at Kali for some reason.

"_I severely doubt that Bastet is behind these attacks, it is someone else,"_ declared the Indian Goddess as she narrowed her eyes at Ba'al in extreme dislike. Harry remembered hearing that Kali and Ba'al had been involved in a territorial dispute recently, which one of the SET teams got stuck in the middle of.

"_Bastet is up to something, I know it. What other explanation is there for her recent behaviour?"_ asked Apophis.

"_Many, I don't doubt,"_ Ba'al observed casually, _"she has always been an eccentric, Apophis, that is nothing new."_

Yu nodded in agreement again. _"Bastet is not this cowardly new enemy."_ The others looked at Yu, one of the oldest Goa'uld, as they waited for anything more. It seemed however that that was all he had to say on the matter, which was just as well as moments later Bastet arrived in all her glory.

"_You finally decided to join us?"_ asked Apophis coldly.

Bastet smirked as she sat down on a throne-like chair that had been placed for her, as had been done for the others. Harry got his first real look at the Goa'uld who had invaded Earth and started this whole mess.

She looked much like what he expected, obviously Egyptian with her dark skin and long silky black hair. She was dressed in green and wore a headpiece, like all of the other Goa'uld, featuring a pair of cat-like ears that Harry knew would expand out into the face of a lioness or cat when she was amongst her worshippers. Her dark green eyes seemed to sparkle with malice and superiority as she smirked coldly towards Apophis.

Ra, who had remained quiet since he first spoke, regarded Bastet curiously before speaking. _"Your new host is exquisite Bastet, wherever did you find it?"_

"_A gift from Pakhet that she found on Hebenu."_

"_A generous gift,"_ Ra stated before turning his attention to the Goa'uld in general.

"_An enemy is attacking the System Lords, I know that you have all suffered at the hands of this unknown foe. I wish to find out who is behind it, and punish them."_ Ra's eyes glowed fiercely at the thought of punishing whomever was behind the attacks.

The four on Harry's team were looking at each other in surprise, as none of them had heard about any of the Goa'uld being attacked by some secretive enemy. Harry figured that anybody who was an enemy of the Goa'uld was good in his books, unless they were another Goa'uld.

Hermione's quill was scratching across parchment quickly to record her observations. The spelled quill was linked to Hermione's mind and wrote what she heard and saw as well as linking words and actions to specific people as Hermione recognized them. Harry wasn't sure how it worked, but they'd been using it the last year and it worked brilliantly.

Much better than that nasty Quick Quotes Quill that Rita Skeeter used.

"_Not all of us have suffered, my Lord."_ Apophis glared at Bastet accusingly.

"_The incompetence of your Jaffa is not my problem Apophis,"_ said Bastet, arrogantly dismissing Apophis and his accusations. _"I too have encountered this hidden enemy, thankfully the Claws of Bast are capable of dealing with such foolish upstarts. A pity for those too weak to defend themselves, isn't it?"_ she smirked at Apophis who was glaring at her with as much hate as he was capable.

And really, he was capable of a lot of hate.

"_Did you, by chance, uncover the perpetrator of the attack?"_ Ra cut in before Apophis could retort.

"_No, I did not. The enemy Ha'tak self-destructed once it became apparent that victory was mine. My Jaffa did report that some of the enemy Jaffa had the mark of Ares, others the mark of Pelops."_ Harry, who was observing Bastet closely for any sign that she saw them, noticed that she seemed immensely pleased about something.

Ra raised an eyebrow at that, _"This was your reason for attacking Argos? Pelops says that you ruined an experiment of his in your recent attack, he demands retribution."_ Bastet smiled and Harry had the feeling that she had other motives for attacking Argos, wherever that was, but chose to use this as a just cause.

"_Of course, I will always pounce upon those who dare threaten me. I did not keep his pathetic planet,"_ Bastet reasoned, _"I only sought to send him a message that I will not allow he and his allies to disrespect me in such a way again. His little science experiment,"_ she scoffed at this, but Harry thought he caught a bit of triumph in her eyes, _"was of little consequence anyway."_

"_You expect us to believe this, Bastet?"_ asked Apophis, who was standing up and looking very angry by this point. _"You are up to something Bastet! I know that you are, do not try to deceive me!"_

If Apophis had been trying to intimidate Bastet, he did a pretty poor job of it. The cat goddess simply rose gracefully from her own seat and gazed calmly into the eyes of Apophis. But Harry noticed something else, something extremely frightening. The subtle feel of pent up magical energy barely being contained by a witch or wizard feeling extreme emotions. What frightened Harry most was that he knew this feeling was coming from Bastet, and even worse was that it was almost overwhelming in it's magnitude.

Usually the feeling is very subtle, you almost have to know how to sense it except in the case of the most powerful of wizards. This feeling however, Harry thought that even a muggle should be able to sense. It was an overwhelming feeling of malice and impending death, and Harry knew that no matter how calm Bastet seemed on the outside she dearly wanted to smite Apophis on the inside.

"_Up to something, Apophis? I don't know what you could mean, I simply yearn for a bit of peace and quiet to go along with my new host."_ She said it all so innocently that if you didn't know she was an evil Goa'uld you might actually believe it. As it was, Ba'al snorted loudly in amusement before letting go and laughing out loud.

"_You Bastet, peace and quiet?" _he asked in amused disbelief. Kali and Yu both seemed mildly amused by her claims, while Apophis was even angrier. Ra simply sat upon his great throne stroking a cat and looking thoughtful.

Bastet ignored Ba'al. However Harry noted curiously that just before she began to speak she shot a sideways glance at Ra's thoughtful visage and seemed to change what she intended to say.

"_What I am interested in, Apophis, is what you are up to?"_ once more she smirked at Apophis with malice, and he seemed to become slightly worried. _"Yes, I am most interested in knowing more about a certain new ship you are having constructed. My spies tell me that it is a most interesting design. A new flagship, hmm? I wonder if Lord Ra knows about this new and powerful weapon you have created?"_ Harry thought that Bastet was likely trying to divert attention away from herself, and it worked as Ra quickly stood with his eyes flashing in anger at Apophis. The poor cat he'd been petting went flying and ran off fearfully.

"_What is this Apophis! You are constructing a new mothership? Of a new design? Why have you concealed this from the System Lords, from me?"_ Ra was definitely not a happy god right now, and the other System Lords looked very angry too. Harry thought they were all being a bit daft, and suspected that every one of them would eagerly build a new more powerful mothership in secret if they could. They were all just mad that Apophis had done it first, except Bastet who had sat back on her throne, curled up like a cat and watching in obvious amusement.

Apophis cowered a bit at Ra's anger, _"You will give me the plans for this mothership, I will personally be coming to inspect it, do not try to deceive me again Apophis."_ Apophis bowed and muttered some apologies before hastily taking his seat. Ra sat in a more dignified manner and looked out over his underlords before returning his attention to Bastet.

"_You are certain that the enemy Jaffa had the marks of Ares and Pelops? Neither of them would be capable of mounting such offensives, or clever enough to keep their identities shrouded in mystery. There is another at work here, somebody who wishes to cause discord amongst us."_ Ra narrowed his eyes and looked about the gathered System Lords, as if trying to figure out which one it was.

"_When one of my ha'taks was attacked,"_ Kali began, _"the Jaffa of the enemy were primarily from the forces of Sokar, Nirrti and Sobek. However a few bore the mark of Olokun!"_ The Goa'uld in question rushed to defend himself.

"_One of my ha'taks was surrounded by the enemy, the filthy Jaffa chose to surrender instead of die with honour!"_

"_So,"_ mused Ra, _"whomever this is seems to be relying on converted forces of his enemies. Why though? Is it because he had little to begin with, or is it a ploy to hide his true identity and nothing more?"_ Ra wondered out loud.

Svarog had an idea though, _"Could it not be Sokar? He is both powerful and angry at his punishment, he may wish to destroy us."_

"_True, he likely does harbour dreams of our destruction,"_ admitted Ra. _"However I do not see him having the ability to pull this off, nor the ability or desire to do so under such secrecy. No, it is not Sokar whom is behind these attacks."_

"_Could it be the Tok'ra?"_ Svarog asked, but Ra shook his head.

"_No, I do not think so, they do not have the resources to conduct such attacks, nor have they ever shown much inclination to work with the Jaffa."_ Ra seemed rather certain that the Tok'ra couldn't be responsible, which left them still without any idea who was attacking them.

The meeting raged on for another few hours. They debated some more on the subject of the attacks, but ultimately put it aside as nobody could think of who could possibly be behind it. They also discussed various territorial squabbles and Apophis tried to convince the others of Bastet's naughtiness again, which she once more deflected easily. When the System Lords had all left, Harry and his team returned to the tent to discuss.

"So somebody is attacking the Goa'uld, huh? I want to send them flowers," said Ron happily.

"I wouldn't be so sure Ron, I mean, whoever it is could be just as bad or even worse than the Goa'uld." Hermione reasoned, which Harry agreed with, though he was still happy that somebody was killing off the Goa'uld.

"What about this new mothership of Apophis?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, I mean, we couldn't even deal with a normal ha'tak, so..." Hermione didn't have to say it, they all knew that if the Goa'uld attacked Earth in force from space, they couldn't win that battle.

"Maybe we ought to go steal it?" Ron asked, looking very happy at the thought of stealing an even better ship than Neville.

"Maybe, we'll see what Gilmour says." They all remained quiet for a few moments, knowing what they had to talk about but none of them were sure that they wanted to.

"So...Bastet, uh, you guys felt it too, didn't you?" he asked. "Somehow she's figured out how to use magic, or taken a magical host. I don't see how she could have though, I mean, the two she took from the Ministry were blokes right?"

"Well, it's possible that she found a magical host elsewhere, isn't it?" asked Hermione. "After all, it'd be pretty arrogant of us to think that there are no witches and wizards amongst the humans the Goa'uld have taken over the years, or took original, or were born on other planets. I mean, there must be some muggleborns out there on other planets, right?"

Harry could see her reasoning, but another thought kept popping into his head. "Yeah, it would make sense Hermione, but the thing is we've still not run into any, none of the teams have. That's a little odd, don't you think? And wouldn't all the Goa'uld be getting magical hosts if they could?"

"But if there are no wizards or witches born on other planets, and none abducted, then how did she become magical?" Ron asked uneasily.

"Earth?"

"I dunno Nick, I mean, surely we'd know if Bastet had decided to drop by for a visit. Right? I mean, it's kind of hard to hide that big ship of hers." The others all looked at each other, but none of them really knew what to say. All the evidence they had pointed that the only magical people were on Earth, at least the only ones with magic like they have. Still, Bastet hadn't returned through the Stargate and they'd been on the lookout for spaceships or unusual events that could be related to the Goa'uld.

"Still, she didn't seem to notice us, so that's good right?"

"Maybe Ron, maybe. She may have just not been expecting us and thus never bothered to look, or she may have noticed us and simply chose not to acknowledge us."

"But why would she do that? I mean, if she spotted us, then surely she'd want to gain favour with her 'lord' and turn us in?" Harry shrugged, even after two years he still didn't know what went on in the minds of the Goa'uld.

He spent the night reading over Hermione's notes, but they didn't offer any additional insight. The rest of the week was spent in much the same fashion, except that Ra left to see just what Apophis was up to. Several minor Goa'uld visited Ra's court, including Astarte, a very beautiful and cunning Goa'uld that he knew served Ba'al. They also saw Menhit, an underlord of Ra's who had formerly been in the service of Sekhmet before her banishment by the manipulations of Bastet.

At the end of their week they once again found themselves staring at a giant eye after making their way through the Stargate. They'd used a few curses on the Jaffa around the gate and an obscuring charm around the gate and dialling device, so that nobody would (hopefully) get the address. Once more it took a few moments before a wizard appeared at a door that shimmered into existence.

Harry noticed that not only had the door appeared in a completely different place, but the hallways seemed to be different as well. He asked the guide, which was different from the last time, about that.

"It is an extraordinary piece of magic, the Labyrinth as we call it. It is never the same twice, and the only ones capable of navigating it are those of us who have had a certain charm placed on us. The charm, we call it the Ariadne Charm, works with the Labyrinth Enchantments to allow us to know how to get to our destination. Anybody without the charm would simply wander and wander through an endless maze of corridors." Harry thought that sounded kind of cool, a bit creepy and definitely not something he'd like to do, but a brilliant piece of magic nonetheless.

Seeing that this wizard was more forthcoming with information, Harry asked another question. "I didn't know that the magical computers were finished yet? Last time we came through here the guy said you were using some?"

"Yes, yes indeed, though I hesitate to call them 'computers', they are not overly much like their muggle counterparts and vastly superior. They're more magic than machine, thankfully. Ah, here we are," and indeed they were now back in the Embarkation Room where the Stargate was just finishing dialling Earth.

Once through the gate they met with Director Gilmour and Imhotep, who had just returned from Egypt the day before.

Harry didn't waste much time in getting to the big news of their observation mission.

"Well, that is certainly disconcerting Potter, you're absolutely certain it was her? Alright, we need to figure out how Bastet gained a magical host. Our researchers have found no evidence of any magical heritage in any off-world cultures, which is perplexing in and of its self. As of right now the only place we know of that she could attain a magical host is from Earth."

"What about, I don't know, some sort of genetic alteration? I mean we know that the Goa'uld have technology that can heal people, even those who couldn't be healed by magic, isn't it possible that they could, er, I don't know, engineer a magical host? They have captured two Unspeakables, after all, they could use them perhaps?" Harry didn't really want to consider that prospect, but he thought it was better than Bastet being able to secretly sneak into Earth.

"It may be possible, I don't know, it's certainly not something that our own scientists are capable of conceiving but these Goa'uld are significantly more advanced. Still, she'd be a child if that were the case, would she not?" He raised a good point there, but Harry had a suspicion that he wanted to look into.

"Sir, the planet Argos that Bastet had attacked, perhaps the answer could be there? When she spoke of it, she seemed very, I don't know, triumphant." Harry paused for a moment trying to think back to what he had observed at the Goa'ulds little get together.

"It was subtle, but, well, I think something there was important. Maybe it was just that she defeated somebody that she thought had slighted her, but I think there was more to it Sir. When she first spoke of Pelops' Jaffa being on the enemy ship, she seemed, I don't know, rather pleased with herself."

Gilmour nodded thoughtfully, "You think that she wasn't telling the truth? That the story was merely an excuse to cover up her attack on this Argos planet?"

He nodded, "Maybe, I mean, she had to know that this Pelops fellow would complain about her attack, right? This gives the perfect excuse, Pelops can honestly declare that he did not attack her and thus her attack was unprovoked, but with this explanation Bastet can claim to have had reasonable cause for attacking."

"And she didn't have any interest in conquest, correct? Granger's notes, they say that Pelops complained of a scientific experiment that was disrupted by Bastet's actions?" Director Gilmour reread the notes Hermione had provided, his eyes narrowing as he read the part in question.

"It's possible, it's very possible Potter, good observations, we'll send you out in three days to this Argos if it's in the Abydos database. You'll need to find out what the experiment was and we'll see how it could be connected to Bastet's new found abilities. Get back to your quarters and rest up, I'll have somebody tell you if we have the address soon as I can, dismissed."

The five of them went back to their team common room and caught up with Imhotep. Roughly an hour and a half later they received word that they had an address for a planet named Argos and that they needed to prepare a strategy. Imhotep was able to compile what information we knew both from Earth mythological history and Goa'uld history.

"Pelops was King of Pisa, that would be Pisa in Greece not Pisa in Italy," Harry wondered which one had the leaning tower, he was thinking Italy. "He was the son of Tantalus," Imhotep spoke the name with a bit of a cringe, which intrigued Harry, "and Dione, the mother of Aphrodite."

"Pelops, when a young boy, was chopped up into bits by his father and served as an offering to the Gods, who refused to partake, except for Demeter who was a bit distraught by the abduction of her daughter Persephone." Harry and the others sat blinking at Imhotep, wondering just what he was going on about. "Demeter ate a bit of his shoulder, Hephaestus was able to construct him a new one made of ivory, so they boiled him in a cauldron and brought him back to life."

"Wait, they boiled him in a cauldron and brought him back to life?" asked Harry.

"Yes, the rest of the Gods didn't eat any of the offerings, so they tossed it all in a pot and, uh, brought him back to life." Imhotep shrugged, he was used to such things from studying mythology. He didn't know that Harry wasn't disgusted by the whole thing as much as he was remembering Voldemort's rebirth from a boiling cauldron.

"Anyway, so Poseidon took him to Olympus and made him eromenos,"

"His what?" asked Ron.

"Err, well, hmm," Harry was curious what made Imhotep blush so furiously and be at a loss for words, which was completely unlike him. "Well, an eromenos was an adolescent boy who, er, learned from an older man."

"Learned what?" Ron asked suspiciously.

"Whatever they're taught, Ron. Anyway, Zeus tossed him off Olympus after Tantalus stole some food from the Gods."

"Well, that was jolly nice of him," Ron interrupted again, which earned him a glare from Hermione and Imhotep.

"Indeed, anyway, he survived, and decided he want to marry Hippodamia, her father King Oenomaus had received a prophecy stating that he'd be killed by his future son-in-law, so he raced any would be suitors in a chariot race and killed them, stuck their heads on some columns," he stopped and glared at Ron, daring him to comment and Harry's red headed friend wisely stayed silent.

"So anyway, Pelops got some help from his former lover Poseidon and," but Ron interrupted again.

"Hey, I thought Poseidon was a bloke, wasn't he? I mean, like the Sea God or something, right?" Imhotep nodded, Ron blinked and decided to sit back and be quiet.

"As I was saying, he got some help from Poseidon and bribed Myrtilus, Oenomaus' chariot driver, and ultimately won the race. He then tossed Myrtilus off a cliff after he tried to rape Hippodamia, but Myrtilus cursed Pelops before he died. This race would be one of several myths regarding the founding of the Olympic Games."

"Okay, so that's what we got on Pelops?" Imhotep nodded, "Okay, what about Argos? Does that match any place on Earth?"

"Argos is a city in Greece, it's been ruled by various famous mythological Kings including the legendary hero Perseus, amongst others."

They reviewed a few images sent back by a mirror probe, which showed a very beautiful village on a beach. Harry thought if it weren't for the Goa'uld, it'd be a nice place to go on vacation. The village showed clear signs of a recent battle and there were a few Jaffa running around ordering humans to do this and that as they tried to rebuild.

**2002 A.D. – August 21**

**Temple to Pelops**

**Planet: Argos**

The team, this time a proper quintet, stepped out of the Stargate from Hermes Base as confused by the place as ever. Harry was convinced that this time they'd simply walked in a circle five times before opening a door that hadn't been there before.

Once again they were unseen and unheard as they came out, leaving the Jaffa guarding the gate wondering what was going on. Harry led his team to the town centre where they gathered to decide where to go next. Harry located what looked to be governmental buildings and led them there, they found one man off by himself and Harry raised his wand.

"Imperio," the Argosian stopped and suddenly started walking quickly towards an unused room where he could find privacy, at Harry's command of course. Once they were all in side Niklas sealed the doors and windows so that they wouldn't be interrupted and nobody would notice them. Harry dropped the curse as Ron bound him to a chair that Imhotep had conjured and Hermione pulled out a vial of Veritaserum.

"Alright," Harry said after administering a few drops of the truth serum. _"What is your name?"_

"_Galenos,"_ replied the man unemotionally.

"_Did the Goddess Bastet recently attack this place?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Why?"_

"_I do not know."_

"_Was Pelops conducting any experiments on your people?"_

"_I do not know."_

"This isn't getting us anywhere Harry," Ron said dejectedly.

"Right," Harry thought for a moment, _"What did Bastet do when she arrived?"_

"_Lady Bastet bombarded Argos from the sky."_

"_Did she ever give any reasons for doing so? Such as retribution for the actions of Pelops?"_

"_No."_

"Alright, well that doesn't tell us much," said Harry who was wondering if they should try for one of the Jaffa.

"I don't know Harry, maybe we should ask him if she only bombarded? He won't give out anymore information than absolutely necessary." He nodded at Hermione and returned to his questioning.

"_What did Bastet do after her bombardment?"_

"_The Lady Bastet descended from the heavens upon the ring platform."_

"_What did she do once she was on the planet?_

"_Lady Bastet ordered all Argosians to come before her."_

"_What did she do then?"_ Harry was starting to get tired of the questioning by this point.

"_Lady Bastet commanded us to bow before her divine might."_

"_And after you were done bowing?"_

"_Lady Bastet and her Jaffa occupied the Temple of Pelops for the night."_

"_Anything else?"_

"_Lady Bastet took several children with her."_

"_Okay, and next?"_

"_We went to sleep."_

"_And when you woke up?" _Harry was really itching to curse this fellow for being so uncooperative. They really needed a better method of getting information, as this was just tiring.

"_Lady Bastet ordered her Jaffa to search the village."_

"_And did the Jaffa find anything of interest?"_

"_Only the statue of Pelops."_

"_What did she do with the statue?"_

"_She and her Jaffa took it with them and left."_

"_Anything else?"_

"_She also took the children."_

"_How old were the children?"_

"_Two days, three days, six days, four days, and one day old."_

"_What?"_ Harry thought that this was interesting, why such young children? _"She took newborn infants?"_

"_Only one was newborn."_

"_Yes, but the others were only a few days old, they were babies."_

"_My nephew was six days, he tried to run to his mother when he was taken."_

"_How could a six day old baby run?"_ asked Hermione in confusion.

"_All six day olds should be able to run."_

"_Wait," _Harry had a sudden thought, _"How old do people usually get around here?"_

"_Before Lady Bastet came, we aged to one hundred days old."_

"_And after Lady Bastet?"_

"_We now age slower."_

"Alright, I think that explains some things." Harry pointed his wand at the Argosian and said "Obliviate" as the others unbound him and dispelled the chair. They were soon gone off to a quiet spot outside the village.

"Okay, so Pelops' experiment made people age really fast?" Harry stated. "Why would she be interested in this?"

"If, if she's been trying to genetically alter a host to be magical, it could allow her to quickly age them so she can examine the results. Then when she had her final host, she could age her up so that she wasn't a child." Harry nodded at Hermione's explanation, which was along the same lines as he was thinking.

"But the statue of Pelops? Something was in there that was causing it, some sort of technology?" Imhotep questioned.

"Probably. Okay, Ron, you got a blood sample for Galenos?" Ron nodded. "You scanned for any magical activity Nick?" Niklas also nodded. "Alright then, lets capture us a Jaffa!"

Questioning of the Jaffa resulted in much the same results, and as he seemed to have been the head Jaffa on the planet they decided it was unlikely they'd get anything more. Another trip through the Labyrinth and they were back on Earth where Director Gilmour had much the same opinion of what Bastet was up to.

"I'm not sure how she's capable of genetically engineering a magical host though, some of the best geneticists on Earth have been examining wizarding DNA and have made little headway." Harry had heard about the muggles doing some experiments to see what triggered magic in people, something which he and especially Hermione were interested in finding out.

"Well, the Goa'uld are significantly more advanced than we are," reasoned Hermione. "It's very likely that they can do a lot of things that our best muggle scientists can't even dream of. Just look at the sarcophagus."

"True. Still, I don't like the idea that there is still a possibility she's come to Earth. Her present host looks Egyptians, right?" they nodded, except for Imhotep who hadn't seen her. "Very well, I'm going to send you back home Imhotep, see if you guys can find any signs of Goa'uld activity in the region. We'll have a strategy session here, same time, one week from today. I'll see what toys I can get you guys to help out."

On that note they were dismissed and Harry and the gang went off to get some dinner. Harry hoped very much that they wouldn't find anything of interest in Egypt, but one never knows. He was already thinking that they should visit some of the temples to the gods in Egypt, as there were still some wizards who worshipped the old gods. He was sure he'd heard that Bastet had a large magical following for some reason.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harry Potter or Stargate, I make no money off of either and am simply writing this for my own enjoyment.

**Author's Note: **Ah, sorry, I had meant to get this out at the end of February but I got very busy with work and such. Oh well. I don't expect I'll get much done this week either, as it's my birthday Thursday and I shall be enjoying my getting older elsewhere. Hopefully I'll get the next chapter in by the end of March but I make no promises, especially with March Madness coming up.

**The Gateway of Mysteries**

**2002 A.D. – September 2**

**Living Room, Neferankh Residence**

**Planet: Earth – Heliopolis (Cairo), Egypt**

Harry, Ron and Niklas spent their Monday on their very first plane trip, flying from London's Heathrow Airport to Cairo International. Harry wasn't sure he was interested in a return flight though and judging from how green Ron still looked he felt that his friend agreed. They had hit a spot of nasty turbulence almost halfway through that had Ron convinced they were going to die, left Harry feeling ill, and had Niklas looking deeply disturbed.

Things smoothed out though after Niklas said in a commanding sort of tone, "Stop!" Harry was sure that Niklas' command had had little to do with the end of the turbulence, but his large Swedish friend was looking very pleased with himself for the rest of the journey. He was a wizard of few words, but when he spoke you would be wise to listen. It seems that extends to aeroplanes as well.

Once they'd arrived in Egypt Imhotep took them to his families home in the magical district of Cairo, Heliopolis. Unlike Diagon Alley in London, Heliopolis was more like a town hidden within northern Cairo. Harry didn't know how the area was hidden from muggles without them getting confused, it's one thing to hide a magical high street in the middle of a city, a completely different thing to hide a town in the middle of a large muggle city.

The house, a small manor really, had been in Imhotep's family for hundreds of years and now it was all his own. Most of the house was packed up in boxes, as Imhotep hadn't been planning to spend much time there. A couch and a few chairs were still out in the living room, his own bedroom was still furnished and the other bedrooms still had beds.

They had a week in Egypt before they needed to report back to Director Gilmour and they'd be using that time to do some research and visit some sites. Most specifically they intended to visit the Temple of Bast in Bubastis. The specific temple and surrounding village are, despite what muggles may think, still intact and inhabited by witches and wizards. The wards keep the muggles away to where the wizards constructed a rather rudimentary set of fake ruins of Bubastis that they happily examine.

From their briefing before coming, and from what Imhotep told them, Bubastis was one of four purely wizarding villages in Egypt. Harry was considering visiting the other three which also had temples to what they now knew were Goa'uld. Memphis was where the Egyptian Ministry is located, which surprised Harry as he'd thought it'd be in the muggle capital like the British Ministry. Tanis was located in northern Egypt and was the northernmost Egyptian wizarding city as well as the largest.

Lastly there was Thebes which was considered by some to be the heart of magical Egypt. The Thebes Academy of Magic was established long ago by Greek wizards and is the centre of magical learning in Egypt. Imhotep thought that they may wish to visit his former school and visit the library to do some research on the ancient cults and history of Egypt.

The evening after arriving they all decided that they'd get started tomorrow morning, and for tonight they'd simply enjoy Heliopolis. Imhotep took them out to dinner showed them around the magical portion of Cairo for a bit. Hermione, as usual, sniffed out the nearest bookstore (and two more after that) and bought herself some new books. The group found a travel agent that made them portkeys to visit Bubastis and Thebes so that they could get around without using muggle transportation.

They managed to stay clear of the Temple of Ra, though Harry caught sight of it several times. It was a large and dominating temple that had a golden symbol of the Goa'uld Ra above the entrance. Harry couldn't help but wonder if Ra himself had once walked upon the very ground they traversed that night? He didn't know, but that wasn't really what concerned him, what concerned him was how long ago Ra had visited one of his temples.

The group was up early the next morning getting ready to go look for clues about the Goa'uld. They had a quick breakfast, Hermione barely ate as she had her nose buried in a book, and then picked up the portkeys they'd purchased the day before. Harry managed to still land on his backside, though he almost managed to remain upright. He was certainly getting better at portkeys.

They had decided first to visit Thebes, which was far to the south of the other cities, though that didn't really matter too much with portkey travel. Magical Thebes sat back off of the Nile a bit, away from the modern muggle civilization. It was all built very much in traditional Egyptian style, with what at first appeared to be the grandest temple in all of Egypt off in the distance.

The Thebes Academy of Magic was a mix of ancient Egyptian architecture and classical Greek. The massive building was made out of limestone and granite and had a number of intricately carved columns telling the history of Egypt. Two large marble fountains were located along the path from the front gates to the front doors of the school, in what looked to be a park area.

"Anuket, Goddess of the Nile, and Poseidon the Greek God of the Seas," Imhotep told them.

"What's a Greek doing here though?" Ron asked, looking up at the face of Poseidon in confusion.

"Well, the school was built by Greeks, so there are a few other Greek statues and paintings throughout the school."

They continued up to the doors where Imhotep informed them they'd have to report to the schools Headmaster, who would likely be at breakfast now. When they entered the Dining Hall, which Harry noted was just as large but not quite as nice as the Hogwarts Great Hall, the chatter stopped for a few minutes before familiar excited whispers started up. Harry didn't need to speak Egyptian to know they all seemed excited to see him, the constant "Harry Potter" was a bit of a dead give away.

The Headmaster, who had some absurd name that Harry couldn't even contemplate pronouncing, welcomed them graciously to the school. He offered them breakfast, and though Ron looked tempted, Imhotep informed him that they'd already ate. The librarian, a strict looking woman who Harry thought might get along well with Madam Pince, led them to the library and told them to behave.

The schools interior seemed to be made up mostly of limestone and marble with bits of bronze here and there and numerous paintings, carvings and statues. Harry supposed that it was beautiful in it's own way, though he was still partial to Hogwarts. It seemed to lack the comfortable homely feel that Hogwarts seemed to exude, in favour of a more dominating intellectual feeling.

It was however very comfortable, which he hadn't thought it would be. Imhotep told them that the charms and enchantments around the school kept it at a comfortable temperature all year around.

The library was also very spacious with a number of old books and scrolls. Harry wondered if they would be able to get Hermione out of there any time soon, and from the look on Ron's face he could tell that the same thought had crossed his mind. He was even more happy that they had decided to forego the Great Library of Alexandria. The magical section of the Great Library still stood after all this time, having received only relatively minor damage during the destruction of the muggle half.

Imhotep assured them that, for what they were here for, if it wasn't in this library it wasn't likely to be in the Great Library either. Hermione had been very put out about that, but everybody agreed that they didn't have the time. It would take more than a week to scour both libraries as well as visiting all the sites and temples that they planned to visit.

That, and nobody wanted to have to curse their bookish friend in order to extricate her from the Great Library. They had been forced to do that sort of thing before and it never ended well. Nobody got between Hermione and her books and didn't feel her wrath, and unfortunately she had such an extensive spell knowledge that that could be a very bad thing indeed.

As it was, Hermione was in her element searching through the various mammoth tomes located in the library. The research was made difficult by the languages that the books were in, as there were only a few in English and none of those were of any interest to them. Imhotep had no problem reading any of it, of course, but the man spoke several dozen languages.

Hermione could do a reasonable job of reading Egyptian, at least good enough to see if there was anything important. She focused mostly on some of the Greek texts that spoke of ancient Egypt and the Egyptian deities. Harry, who had learned Latin, spent his time studying various old Roman texts to see if there was anything in there. Ron and Niklas were relegated to standing guard and scaring off any curious students who wanted to see what they were up to, or meet the Great Harry Potter.

Sometime later in the morning, before lunch, they got some additional help from Imhotep's old history professor. Professor Khenemehotep was a stately old wizard who had come to see one of his favourite old students and offered his help when he saw they were looking through history. Imhotep was able to explain, very loosely, what it was they were looking for.

Thankfully the bearded old professor seemed to respect their need for discretion and accepted it all well enough. He had directed Imhotep to several good books, in his opinion, that proved useful. He left however after lunch as he still had classes to teach. That allowed Harry to bring up what he had learned from one of his Roman books.

"Hey, guys, look at this. I found an account from some Roman bloke that translated the account of some Greek bloke who wrote down the stories of the wife of some Egyptian bloke he did trade with. I should preface this by saying that he was attempting to find the birthplace of magic," Harry turned quickly back to the page that he had bookmarked earlier and read the account aloud in English.

"_So it was that he spoke of the Gods of Egypt before they were banished from the mortal plane. Oral tradition stated that the first God, Ra, descended from Heaven and took the form of a young man, with whom he shared a physical body. The Great Ra forced the peoples of Egypt to build a great pyramid in his honour, and when they finished he called down from the Heavens an even greater pyramid to sit upon the other."_

"Well, that definitely sounds like a Pyramid Ship then, doesn't it? But we already knew this from Abydos," said Hermione.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting there. It basically goes on for awhile about Ra calling the other Gods down to 'take physical form and walk amongst the mortals'. Mentions them using magical powers to do unexplainable things including raising the dead. The Gods were eventually thrown out of Egypt for becoming too cruel to the Egyptians, they left in their great chariots or pyramids or the Gateway to Heaven."

"The Stargate," Hermione input, to which Harry nodded.

"Right, well, this Roman fellow went further to investigate the godly power of the Egyptians, he was a wizard of course. It says that he, the Roman, believes that neither the Greek chap nor the Egyptian couple were magical." Harry started reading certain excerpts from the man's observations.

"_What I find most perplexing is the lack of any signs of magic in these places that had experienced so much over so many millennia. How is it that the residue of magic remains no longer? I confess that it has been some three thousand years since the Sun God Ra was deposed from the mortal realm, yet still I should expect to see some signs of formal magical inhabitants. There is none._

"_I investigated several ruins as well as the graves of some of the God's followers, none were magical in any sense. Further curiosity led me to speaking with some of the established magical families of Egypt, none can trace their heritage beyond a few generations so I am led to believe that magic in this land cannot be any older than that of Rome or the Etruscans or Greeks."_

"He goes on to talk about some other observations and then he talks about going to Mesopotamia and searching there but still not finding anything in his quest. He seemed convinced by the end that magic came from the descendants of Atlantis that had fled after the destruction of the continent. Here, listen to this," Harry read another excerpt towards the end.

"_Ultimately, I am left to believe that there can be no such thing as coincidence that all of these stories are so similar and converge near enough to the same point in time. Almost every culture mentions mysterious strangers from a distant land who were all highly skilled and educated. These points all happen near the time in which Romulus and Remus founded Rome, thus leaving me to wonder Rome was built to be the new Atlantis? Or, if not Atlantis, then some other great civilization far beyond the seas."_

"He goes on and on about it really, but, uh, I just sort of thought that was interesting. When was Rome founded?" Harry asked, history had never been his strong point.

"753 BC," Hermione supplied immediately, "but that's absurd, there must have been wizards before then. I mean, how do you explain all the ancient wizards and witches like Circe?"

"Is she though?" asked Imhotep. "I mean, look at it like this Hermione, most of those ancient wizards like Circe are part of mythology. The very same mythology that we now know is composed of Goa'uld. We used to think that Ra and Bastet and all the old gods in every culture were just extremely powerful wizards."

"But," Hermione seemed to struggle to grasp the concept that everything she thought she knew about the history of magic may be incorrect. They'd had the same problem once she realized that the existence of the Goa'uld meant that most likely her precious history books were incorrect. "But magic must be older than 753 BC! It simply must!"

"Well of course it is," Ron spoke up to everyones surprise, "I mean, how old is Stonehenge?"

"Around six thousand years old, give or take a few hundred years."

"Well, there you go," said Ron as if that explained everything.

"There what goes? I don't see anything going," replied Imhotep, who looked as confused as Harry felt.

"Well, it's obvious isn't it?" Ron asked, looking around at the others. "Stonehenge is the most magical place in Britain, and Britain is the birthplace of magic." He scowled at Imhotep who snorted in reply.

"Oh please! You Brits are always going on about being the 'birthplace' of magic, complete, what do you call it, 'rubbish', yeah? Birthplace of _modern_ magic, maybe, but of magic in general? Not a chance, not a chance." Harry had heard the debate before at headquarters, it was inevitable with so many different nationalities.

"Right," Harry cut in before they could continue, "right, so how long ago was it that the Goa'uld got kicked out?"

"Sometime around 3000 BC, as best we've been able to figure," Hermione stated.

"Okay, that makes sense I think," Harry said, the others gave him confused looks so he elaborated. "I was wondering why the Goa'uld have never had magical hosts, why no wizards or magic seems to exist outside of Earth. Don't you see it?" he looked at the others whose looks ranged from blank to sceptical.

"So...you think that magic just suddenly came into existence sometime after the Goa'uld?" Hermione said doubtfully.

"It would explain things, don't you think?" replied Harry, he thought it was a perfectly logical explanation. "It's magic, seriously, it does weird stuff all the time, but what about what he said, something about strange wise men that suddenly seemed to show up everywhere at the same time?"

"You think that some aliens or something...what, mated with humans?" asked Hermione distastefully.

"Gatebuilders?"

"Hmm, I hadn't really thought of that Nick, but the gate seems purely technological, not magical. I don't know if I'd say they're the ones, but isn't it possible that some alien species came to live on Earth? I mean, the Goa'uld did, didn't they?" Harry wasn't prepared to say he was certain, but it just seemed to make sense to him. "What about Atlantis?" Harry asked suddenly, thinking about the Roman's theory.

"Doubtful Harry. Atlantis, if it even existed, would have been around long before the founding of Rome," Hermione explained patiently. "Atlantis would have been around nine thousand years before Rome was founded. If Atlantis is where magic came from then the Goa'uld would have found it."

Harry frowned, he really did think that there was something to this theory but he knew he was missing some pieces. "What if...no, wait Hermione, what if Atlantis isn't on Earth?" Hermione and others looked sceptical. "What? Is it that impossible? Knowing what we know? Maybe, just listen, maybe Atlantis was on another planet full of magical people, right? Okay, and then it got destroyed somehow, right? So the people from Atlantis came to try and find a new planet, right? And they found Earth around the time of the founding of Rome?" Harry thought it was a reasonable idea.

"Sounds a bit barmy mate," was Ron's assessment.

"I doubt it Harry. If that were so, then how did Plato learn of it? After the Goa'uld left and the gate was buried but before the people from Atlantis arrived?"

"I, er, I don't know Hermione. But it's possible, isn't it?"

"Harry, I don't know, where would all the magical plants and animals have come from then?" As usual Hermione raised a good point, Harry didn't know how to explain all of that too.

"Could they have brought it along?" he asked.

"That would seem like quite a stretch Harry," she didn't look at all convinced.

"Maybe...maybe their arrival, um, transformed things a bit? Like you said Harry, magic does odd and unexplainable things and at times it seems almost sentient." Hermione still seemed quite sceptical despite Imhotep's defence. Ron seemed to still believe that all magic came from Britain and Niklas appeared completely indifferent.

"Maybe," her tone suggested it wasn't likely, "but we should really focus on what we're here for."

By the evening they hadn't really found much of use, though Harry was careful to keep track of anything that supported his other theories. He wasn't completely sure what he was looking for, but he noticed that factual history of the wizarding world doesn't seem to go too far beyond the eighth century BC. After that, it seems to blend into muggle mythology, and Harry found that immensely interesting.

They ate dinner at Thebes Academy before making their way back to Cairo and Imhotep's home. The next morning they'd be going to Bubastis and they were all eager to see what awaited them there, even Imhotep who conceded that he'd never been there before.

When they were preparing the next morning, something caught Harry's eye that he hadn't really paid much attention to previously.

"Hey, Imhotep, who is that? In the picture?" he pointed to a small picture of a younger Imhotep and a young girl that had he'd just noticed.

"Hmm? Oh, Isis, my little sister, I think that was taken shortly after I'd graduated from Thebes Academy, she must have been, eight, I think, maybe nine," Imhotep picked up the picture of the two smiling and waving at the camera. "Yeah, nine, I think she'd just turned nine recently."

Harry nodded, "I thought so, she's, uh, adorable." Harry didn't want to say what he was really thinking, which was that he'd seen a similar if older face before. Most telling however were the dark green eyes, shining with youthful happiness in the picture, his mind however conjured up images of the very same eyes darkened with an inner maliciousness.

As they got ready and travelled to Bubastis by portkey Harry decided that unless they had reason to believe that Bastet had visited Earth, he wouldn't bring it up. There was no need to put Imhotep through that, especially when he had no idea if his theory was right. After all, he assured himself, the girl in the picture was very young. Sure they had the same colour and shape eyes, but that meant nothing. Surely. The fact that they looked so similar otherwise could be their shared Egyptian heritage.

Bubastis, when they arrived, was very busy and full of both people and cats, which roamed freely through the city.

"Why does magical Egypt use Greek names?" asked Hermione once they'd landed and gotten themselves sorted out.

"Don't know," Imhotep admitted. "The Greeks built Thebes Academy and they had a profound influence over the classical era of magic, so it's really not that surprising I suppose."

"Classical era?" asked Harry.

"Well, yeah, didn't you ever pay attention during History of Magic?" asked Hermione. "Nevermind, of course you didn't. Magical history is divided into three eras Harry; the Ancient Era, the Classical Era, and the Modern Era. The Ancient Era is everything before the time of Circe and Hekate and other early Classical sorcerers and sorceresses. The Classical Era is from then until the time of Merlin which is the beginning on the Modern Era."

"Right," said Harry who was wondering when Binns had slipped that in between his tales of Goblin Wars. "So you don't think we should check out anything in Greece, do you? I mean, do the Greeks still believe in the old Gods? Are we sure Bastet never posed as a Goddess over there?"

"I don't know," Imhotep admitted, "I remember that some said Bastet travelled to Greece a time or two, some even said that she underwent the name Artemis in Greece. I don't know that I believe that though, I mean, there are similarities, but I don't know. The Greeks called her Ailuros and I know they had built some temples to her in Egypt."

"Why don't you think she was also Artemis?" Harry asked.

"Well, I guess I just don't think they're all that similar. I mean, Artemis is a lunar goddess while Bastet is a solar goddess, for one. Though originally Selene was the lunar goddess while Helios was the solar goddess, but at some point that got shifted to Artemis and her brother Apollo."

"Maybe she carried the moon over Greece and the Sun over Egypt?" offered Ron.

"I thought Bastet was associated with both?" Hermione spoke up, ignoring Ron's effort.

"Well the Greeks associated her with the moon, much much later in history though," he frowned but shrugged, who knew why the Greeks did it. "Anyway, cats were very sacred to Bastet, that's why we have all these little beasts running around the streets here tripping people," Imhotep scowled at a cat that quickly scurried between his feet as he was walking. "Artemis, deer are sacred to her. Then there is Artemis' association with virginity and hunting, as well as forest and trees."

"Yeah," said Harry, "but Egypt isn't exactly known for it's forest and deer. Perhaps she decided that she like trees and hills and deer? Maybe she had a bad relationship and swore off sex?"

"I suppose it's possible," Imhotep conceded, "but I don't think so. They do have common associations with childbirth and fertility though." He shrugged, it didn't really matter that much, at least not in regards to their current task. "I suppose if we ever meet a Goa'uld named Artemis, then we'll know."

"Well, whatever, lets get to this temple."

The Temple of Bast was surrounded by water, except where the entrance was and there were many trees surrounding the building, all in all Harry thought it was rather beautifully done. The massive gateway to the temple was adorned with various engravings showing pictures of cats or of Bastet and other various stories. The gateway had to stand nearly sixty feet high, with the walls that enclosed the temple perhaps a third as tall. Harry noted that the trees all around the temple were exceedingly tall as well and had to wonder if that was part of the reason for her connection to Artemis.

Once they entered the temple they saw that it was even more spacious on the inside, likely larger than it should have been. There was a ten foot tall effigy of Bast on the inside that Harry noticed bared a shockingly good resemblance to the Goa'uld Bastet in full costume. There were a number of worshippers in the temple, some of which gave Harry and the others dirty looks as if they didn't like tourists visiting their temple.

"Well, that looks a lot like our girl don't you think?" Harry asked. They'd seen a picture of Bastet taken by a reconnaissance team while she was holding court amongst her followers. "Hermione?"

"Hmm, yeah, there are traces of some naquadah in the temple, something in the statue and then something towards the back. Check it out?" Harry nodded, they'd go towards the back and see if they could find what was there without attracting attention.

As it was they only attracted the attention of the High Priest, a tall elderly man with sharp features and beady little eyes who was holding and petting a small kitten as he walked up to them.

"Greetings young ones, may I help you?" he didn't seem to blink as much as normal, which always freaked Harry out a little bit unless it was Luna.

"Er, we're just, you know, looking around," Harry replied uneasily.

"Yes? And what are you looking for, Harry Potter?" asked the old priest, he kept staring directly into Harry's eyes without blinking. It was rather disturbing for Harry. Needing to look away for a moment Harry caught Niklas' eye before looking up absently, after a second he returned his attention to the priest.

"Er, my cat?" Hermione tried to discreetly step on his foot. "Yeah, I lost, uh, Twinkles, I thought he might of come here, you know, Bastet and all that," he finished lamely.

Harry thought that, maybe, possibly, the priest was going to blink, but he ended up merely narrowing his eyes slightly. "Is that so?" Harry was sure the old priest didn't believe his rather pathetic lie, and Harry couldn't blame him.

Harry had thought that the man would continue, but he simply stared at Harry who felt obliged to answer. "Er, yeah, um, it is. Have you seen him? Answers to Twinkles? Short fellow, four legs, sorta furry?" Harry wasn't really improving his impression, and Hermione was looking like she dearly wanted to smack him.

Still without blinking or changing expression at all, "No, I have not seen this...Twinkles."

"Oh? Drat. Well, have you seen Bastet? Maybe she would know, eh?" the priest didn't look amused. "You know, skinny woman, about this tall" he held up his hand to about five foot ten, "long black hair, dark green eyes, they glow sometimes...the eyes, I mean, not the hair. Wears some a big gold headdress with green eyes? Deep voice? Know her?"

Harry knew he'd hit a cord of some sort when the priest twitched, and then blinked finally. The question was whether it was from his insolence in describing the mans Goddess or his accurately detailing what she looked like.

"I believe, Mr. Potter, that it is time for you and your friends to leave the temple." The priest was definitely not in his happy place, and since Harry didn't want to make a scene he led his own loyal followers out of the temple. Once they found a nice pub and an out of the way booth they had a drink, put up some privacy wards, and talked.

As Harry expected, Hermione immediately started in on him. "Twinkles? Looking for your cat Twinkles? Honestly Harry, that's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. You should have kept your mouth shut, we needed to find whatever was being hidden there so that we could..." Harry, who had grown tired of listening, cut her off before she could continue.

"Hermione, we'll get our chance to look at whatever trinkets Bastet left," Harry said confidently. "Nick, you check the wards on that place?"

The big Swede nodded, "Strong," was his only verbal reply.

"Eh, well, didn't expect anything less. You planted the Disruptor?" he asked, receiving another nod in reply. The 'Disruptor' was a device that the people in research had managed to create that worked even better than initially expected. It was created as a means to get around shields that could block wizarding transportation. Many Goa'uld shields didn't block apparition or portkey travel, but a few of the higher quality ones did.

The Disruptor had been devised to temporarily, only for a few seconds at most, disrupt said shields allowing a portkey to enter. The portkey was charmed to activate at the same time, ensuring that they arrived during the brief few seconds that the shields were down. It wasn't the easiest thing to use though as you had to calibrate it to the specific frequency needed. The really exciting thing though was that they discovered it could be worked to do the same for wards.

In this particular case they would wait for it to disrupt the anti-portkey wards and anti-intrusion wards before their arrival. They'd then quickly do what they had to do and find what information they could and get out, which reminded Harry of something.

"Our exits good, yeah?" Niklas nodded, apparently the priests at the temple hadn't been concerned with keeping people in, only out. "Okay then, now, do any of you think Bastet has been around lately?"

"Well, that priest did get rather twitchy when you described her," said Hermione, echoing Harry's observations. "Of course, that could have just been from anger," she noted, giving Harry a dirty look.

"Could be," he agreed, "but it could also be that he was surprised or worried. I say we abduct a priest or two and ask them questions."

"I'm all for it," said Ron, backing up Harry as usual.

Niklas shrugged and said, "Fine."

Imhotep and Hermione were not as certain. "I don't know Harry, we can't just go around abducting people and questioning them under veritaserum all the time." She looked to Imhotep for support.

"Well, we can get away with that off-world, but it's not as easy here Harry. They've got magic too, don't forget." Harry could understand what he was saying, it wouldn't be as easy to take somebody who could defend themselves from magic. More importantly, it'd be harder to get the answers they want and, of course, there is the risk of them remembering the encounter. With non-magical people, it's not much of a problem as long as it is done correctly. With magical people though, if they have a strong mind, it can be hard to do and even harder to make it hold.

Unless you wanted to go with the Crouch method, but Harry preferred not to go around causing brain damage if he could help it.

"Well, we've got to try something guys. Just finding a couple of old trinkets won't tell us much."

"Hey," Ron suddenly had a thought, "didn't they send teams out to check all these sites before? Why didn't they find anything then? Maybe she's only recently put them there, whatever they are." The idea had a bit of merit, but Hermione had an excuse.

"They weren't looking for anything as specific as this and they didn't have all the same spell that we have," she said reasonably. "The detection spell for finding Goa'uld technology or naquadah hadn't been developed yet so they could have easily missed it. I wouldn't have noticed that there was any sort of hidden chamber if it hadn't been for that spell." She looked over at Niklas for support.

"It's well concealed," Niklas conceded.

"We will be able to get in, right? I mean the hidden chamber?" Harry asked, it would be pretty useless if they couldn't.

"Yes," Nick said confidently, which was backed up by Hermione's nodding.

"Alright, and you're sure that there ought to only be one or two minor priests at most?" he asked Imhotep.

"Yeah, I mean that's how they usually operate. The biggest worry is the High Priest. If he's there that could be trouble."

"How so?" Ron asked, he hadn't found the old man too threatening.

"You don't get to that position in one of the cults, especially Her cult, without being very powerful and very wise. Most of the High Priest would be, I guess you could say, Dumbledore like for you Brits." The three former Hogwarts students look at him dubiously. "Well, maybe not _that_ powerful; but they're strong, wise, and very experienced. Being the High Priest of the most popular cult, you can bet that guy will put up a difficult fight if he's there."

"Right, well, if he's there leave him to me," was all Harry said, and the others nodded.

The next few hours were spent wandering around Bubastis visiting some stores, and occasionally talking to some people. The members of the Cult of Bast that they found were all quite devoted, somewhat freakishly so in Harry's opinion. He did find one interesting piece of information, Bubastis has never been attacked by a Nundus in it's entire existence.

Now part of that may be that it is in the north of Egypt in the Delta region, and most Nundu are more to the south deep in the Sahara desert. Still, many of the Cult of Bast believed it to be because She was protecting the city. Harry doubted that, even if she were visiting Earth he found it hard to believe that a Goa'uld would care that much. From his own first hand experiences and reading mission reports from other teams, the Goa'uld seemed to view their slaves as expendable.

It was one in the morning when they were all getting ready to visit the temple again. They'd discussed what to do and had taken a brief nap earlier in the day so everybody was refreshed and ready for whatever was to come. When the time finally came Harry felt the familiar jerk around his navel and landed, somewhat uneasily, on his feet.

Two priests were in the temple even at this late, or early depending on your view, hour and Harry quickly stunned, bound and petrified them before they even had a chance to fight back.

"Not so hard," Harry observed before turning to the others. "Okay, Nick, you stay guard out here mate. Hermione, you're in charge of figuring out what Bastet has left behind and bagging it. Imhotep, you need to have a chat with our friends. Ron, you're with me. Everyone got it?" They all nodded and went about their tasks.

Hermione, with a little help from Niklas, was able to undo wards protecting the hidden chamber and four them went back there. As Hermione went to look about with Ron, whom Harry had sent in case there were any complications, Harry and Imhotep levitated the two priests in. A few drops of Veritaserum and the priests were telling all of their secrets, unfortunately they weren't getting much of use when Harry heard a crack and the sound of spells followed by a pained grunt and a thump.

"You deal with them mate, I'll go see what Nick's up to," at that Harry dashed off back into the main chamber of the temple and very nearly lost his head. Literally.

Whirling around Harry brought up a shield in time to stop another curse as he saw his friend from earlier in the day, the High Priest. Niklas was crumpled up in the corner where it looked like he had hit his head hard and the bones in his wand arm looked badly broken.

"You should not have returned, Harry Potter. You and your companions will not be allowed to desecrate the great Temple of Bast." Harry could sympathize with the man to an extent, he was protecting a very sacred place to him. The man wasn't evil or anything, at least that Harry had seen, he was simply standing up in defence of his home, his faith, and his beliefs.

Still, that didn't mean Harry was going to go easy on him when he hurt a friend of Harry's and throws dangerous hexes and curses at him.

Harry quickly shot off a messaging spell as he ran for cover, alerting Ron of the danger. He'd taken refuge behind a pillar when a good chunk of it was blown to pieces in front of his face, making Harry like the man less and less.

Harry shot a stunner at the High Priest which he batted away easily, unleashing a volley of severing and piercing curses at Harry who was forced to shield himself as he ran for better cover. Harry sent a bludgeoning curse at the priest who redirected it towards the door just as Ron was coming through. Harry heard a crunch and a thud and didn't think he'd be able to count on Ron helping anymore.

A powerful banishing charm was turned aside easily by the priest as was a bone breaking curse. The priest returned fire with an explosive hex that took out a chunk of wall next to Harry, again hitting him with debris. Harry hadn't yet been hit with any spells, but still had numerous cuts and bruises on his face and chest as well as his back now.

Suffice it to say, Harry decided to stop playing gently after that. A severing curse was deflected by the priest, beheading the statue of Bastet. Harry unleashed a torrent of fire followed up by a blasting curse and a stunner, hoping to conceal them within the flames. Unfortunately the priests shield was strong as it absorbed all three while he animated the various cat statues behind him, sending them vaulting towards Harry.

There were six of the stone felines, Harry managed to banish two, counter another, blow one to bits and levitate the last two in front of oncoming curses. He did all of that while the High Priest, who had barely moved an inch throughout the entire encounter, sent an unceasing volley of various curses in his direction forcing him to doge, counter or deflect them while dealing with the animated statues.

Harry's night went from bad to worse when he heard a series of five cracks, reinforcements had arrived and they didn't play for his team. The High Priest shouted orders in Egyptian before stalking off into the hidden chamber, leaving Harry to deal with the newcomers, who were thankfully no where near as skilled or powerful.

Two of them rushed out towards Harry who banished them back against the far wall with quite a bit of force, taking them out for the immediate future. One had taken cover and the other two were standing in the middle of the large room sending curses at Harry.

He first dealt with the two in the middle, slashing his wand downward sending a powerful tremor towards them, knocking them both off balance and shaking the whole temple. He then caught one in the gut with a bludgeoning curse that had him doubling over in pain, he was then quickly taken out with a stunning spell and a banishing charm.

The other recovered enough to send an explosive curse towards Harry, who deflected it and dodged a severing curse coming from the corner. Slashing his wand from left to right Harry used a whip curse and knocked the man off his feet, turning in the same move to send a blasting curse towards the corner.

Spinning away from a cutting curse by the downed man Harry hit him in his wand arm with a bone-breaking curse and stupefied him, sending him off to the side bound and petrified with the others.

Just as Harry turned to deal with the man hiding off in a far corner, he had to dive down to avoid being made a few inches shorter. One of the men that they had originally been questioning had tried to hit him with a severing charm as he moved towards one corner, the other man moving towards another so that Harry had to deal with curses coming from three angles.

A powerful blasting curse towards the ceiling of the back left corner send debris tumbling down on one man while Harry redirected an explosive curse from the back right up to the far left. A scream told him that it had hit something.

The man in the back right had meanwhile moved up along the wall towards his fallen and stupefied comrades. Harry called up a ring of fire to surround them, cutting off the man before he could get there.

Unfortunately his distraction meant he was hit with a bone shattering curse in his left shoulder, he whirled around while moving forward to shield himself from the man on the right. Finally locating the guy on the left he banished a piece of debris from something right into his head, knocking him out cold.

He couldn't savour his victory much as another bone shattering curse narrowly missed his head and he was at work trying to dispose of the other two. The one he'd hurt before seemed unable to move and, batting away a few curses, Harry was able to take him down while hiding behind pillars from the other.

He had hurt some spell fire from the back room all throughout this ordeal, but now he heard the strangled screams of somebody being tortured, a girl being tortured. The last enemy in the main temple room, which was mostly destroyed now, was hidden behind what remained of a pretty blasted up pillar. Harry pushed all his focus into destroying the last bit of pillar, the resulting explosion sending the man back towards the wall with a sickening thud and blood splattering all over.

Harry didn't have time to dwell on it though as he rushed back into the hidden chamber, noticing Imhotep was out cold but apparently only from a stunning spell. Ron had flown back into a wall early and was knocked out and may have cracked his thick skull. Still, Harry didn't stop to help them right that moment, as he had to find the High Priest and Hermione.

Silencing his shoes and clothes and even himself, Harry managed to sneak up behind the High Priest as he held a painful curse over Hermione. Still the old man must have sensed him somehow, as just when Harry was about stun him he spun and shot a blasting curse right at Harry's gut, disapparating in the process.

Harry was knocked off his feet and flung backwards by the force of the spell, which hadn't been fully on target and ended up a little high and to the right. Harry was thankful that the old sorcerer was disapparating at the same time, as it severely weakened the spell and made the chances of Harry dying quite a bit lower.

Harry always appreciated not dying.

The last thing he saw was Hermione struggling to get to her feet and breathing heavily, and then it all went black.

He woke up a little over a day later back at headquarters in the medical wing with Niklas asleep in the bed to his right and Ron in the bed to his left, quietly talking to Hermione.

His groan must have alerted them to the fact that he was awake, as Hermione hurried over with a worried expression.

"Harry? You're awake," she stated obviously. "How do you feel?"

Harry felt like crap. "Like I've been run over by a herd of hippogriffs, how 'bout you?"

"Oh, oh I'm okay, thank you," she said gratefully.

"What happened?" Harry asked, looking around and trying to remember how he got back here.

"Oh, well, after the High Priest disapparated I was able to get back up and wake Imhotep. You, Niklas and Ron were all in bad shape and I feared the High Priest would show back up so I made a portkey back to Imhotep's." Harry nodded, it was probably the best thing to do despite the injuries.

"Well, one of Imhotep's friends contacted him by the floo, he worked in the Egyptian DMLE, and he warned us that the Egyptian hit-wizards were going to be coming. So I used to emergency portkey back here," she waved her hands around as if to show where here was. Harry could tell there was more as Hermione bit her lip and looked nervous.

"And?" he prompted.

"Well, we're all sort of wanted by the Egyptian Ministry. We're charged with breaking into a sacred temple, vandalizing a sacred temple, destruction of historical relics, illegal use of portkeys, use of illegal spells and magical artefacts, assault of varying degrees, theft, and you're charged with two counts of murder while the rest of us are charged with helping." She said it all very quickly and in one breath as if that would make it somewhat easier. "Oh and we're also charged with possession of a controlled substance and use of veritaserum," she added, trying to think of anything she may have missed.

Harry just stared at her uncomprehendingly. He didn't know how things had gotten so out of control there.

"Harry? Harry are you okay?" Hermione asked, her voice full on concern.

"'M fine," he replied automatically, but he knew Hermione wasn't buying that.

"Harry?" she asked again.

He found he couldn't look her in the eye though, he felt too dirty to look his innocent friend in the eyes.

"You know it's not your fault, right?" she asked, likely knowing just what was bothering him. "Those, uh, priests, they were trying to kill you too Harry. You were just defending yourself." Harry wanted to believe her, but he couldn't.

"Why?" he asked her. "Why did it have to go down like that? I mean, I could have...I should have, you know, done something to resolve it diplomatically. They weren't evil men, they weren't the bad guys, they weren't..." he left off that he was the bad guy in this. He didn't want to say it aloud, it would be like a confirmation of his evil deeds.

"Harry listen to me," Hermione demanded seriously, moving so that her head was inches above his and forcing him to look into her eyes. "You are not to blame for this, you tried your best not to hurt them, you tried to stun them, but sometimes accidents happen. Okay? You were fighting to stay alive Harry, you were fighting to save me, to save all of us." Harry nodded, he had been desperate to help his other team members especially when he heard Hermione's screams. It had reminded him of Malfoy Manor and he hadn't wanted to allow his friend to go through that again.

Still, these weren't Death Eaters or even Jaffa that he was facing. "Hermione, I just... They thought we were trying to destroy their temple or something. They were just, you know, normal people like you and me who were defending what they believed in. They don't know anything about Goa'uld or spacecraft or any of that. It's not like they're Death Eaters or something, they're not people who take pleasure in hurting others. They were bloody priests for Merlin's sake!"

"I know Harry," Hermione said quietly, giving him a hug. "But Harry, you didn't try to hurt them did you?" asked Hermione. "You didn't mean to kill them, to do anything other than knock them out of the fight so you could get the rest of us and get out of there. Did you?" Harry imagined he heard a bit of accusation in his tone and got angry.

"I didn't!" he defended. "I tried, I really did Hermione. I mean, I just wanted to incapacitate them, you know. Stun them or injure them so they couldn't hurt you or Ron or the others! I didn't even know anybody had been killed, I..." he didn't know what to say, he just wanted to make Hermione understand that he wasn't a monster. It was important that she, one of his closest friends, know he didn't purposely go around murdering people.

Her smile confused him though.

"I know Harry," she smiled at him. "I just wanted to make sure you knew too."

Harry blinked before thinking about and scowling at Hermione. She'd purposely done that so that he would defend himself. Still he had to concede that she may have had a point, though it didn't make him feel all that much better.

"Harry," she spoke softly, "the fact that you feel bad about it means you're a better person than Voldemort or his Death Eaters. Look Harry, sometimes in a fight things happen and you're going to need to understand that things don't always go according to plan. You tried not to hurt them but some of them got hurt anyway, that's just way things go sometimes."

Harry gave a non-committal shrug before trying to steer the conversation in another direction. "Right, so we won't be taking any vacations to Egypt soon?" he asked, hoping his poor attempt at a joke would convince Hermione that he was going to be fine. He wasn't sure she bought it, but luckily she decided to leave it be.

"No, no we won't," she agreed. "Chief Director Delamater is attempting to smooth things over via the ICW, but the Egyptians are furious. Last I heard from the wizarding wireless there was a mob that overran Imhotep's manor in Cairo, it's been mostly destroyed." Harry felt quite bad about that.

"Kingsley is pretty unhappy with us too, by the way, as are Chief Delamater and Director Gilmour. So far though Kingsley's been able to say that he doesn't know where you are and that you're not in England as far as he is aware. Officially, Aurors have been sent out to find you, find us," she amended. "The Egyptians want us turned over to them to face punishment."

"Yeah, I'm sure that'd be pleasant. Did we at least find anything of use?" he asked hopefully, not wanting the entire thing to have been a failure.

"Well there was a hand device, a healing device, a sarcophagus, a closet full of staff weapons, a set of Bastet's robes and her headdress and a couple of cases full of naquadah." Harry raised an eye at all of that as he hadn't thought that they would find that much back there, but the room had seemed significantly bigger than expected.

"I managed to get everything but the sarcophagus, it was too big." Harry nodded, it wasn't too bad though as they already had all of that to study, including a sarcophagus they picked up when they found Hathor in Mexico. Still, two cases of naquadah is bound to be useful.

"What about the statue?" Harry asked.

"What? OH!" Hermione's eyes widened comically as she realized she'd forgotten something. "Oh Harry, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot about it! I mean, I was just so concerned with getting you and the others out that I, oh, Harry I'm..." but Harry cut her off before she could go much further.

"It's okay Hermione, I completely understand. The other team can check it out, yeah?" Harry took a look around at his other team members, "How are the others?"

"Oh, Niklas is fine, he's just went to sleep, both of them," she glanced over at Ron who was happily eating a chocolate frog, "will be released by lunch." A nurse who had come over while Hermione was filling him in and casting a few diagnostic charms told Harry that he'd be released the next day, if he continued healing. As it was he did get released even though he had to take a few potions for the rest of the week.

Harry wasn't quite sure being released was a good thing though as his bosses called him in for a meeting and they were not happy at all. Even Kingsley made an appearance and expressed his displeasure at the job he and his team had done in Egypt.

Worst of all was that they didn't get any proof that Bastet had been back to Egypt recently. The two priests they interrogated had revealed nothing and the Goa'uld devices were all hidden in a second chamber that seemed as if it hadn't been opened in awhile.

The Egyptian Ministry complained a lot and even threatened to pull their support for the SEDP and encourage others to do the same, but ultimately did nothing. Harry and his team members were still officially wanted in Egypt however, but at least the Egyptian Ministry wasn't going to send anybody after them.

Though there were quite a few irate Egyptians who might have come after him if they had the opportunity.

Director Gilmour sent another team into Egypt that was able to keep a much lower profile, but they found nothing either.

Harry's team wasn't sent on any missions for the next month as they healed up and then were forced to do guard duty when they weren't undergoing additional training in stealth and infiltration.

All things considered, it wasn't Harry's best month.

Too bad his next would be worse by far.

**2002 A.D. – September 7**

**Hidden Basement, Temple of Bast**

**Planet: Earth – Bubastis, Egypt**

Beneath the Temple of Bast there is a small and dark room dominated by a glowing orb. The orb was a communications device that could talk to a cloaked ship that was landed on the moon to facilitate communications between Earth and the Goa'uld Bastet. The High Priest of the Temple of Bast was the only one who knew about it, and so it was his duty to report on recent events.

"The Unbelievers came just as Our Lady said that they would, My Lord. They managed to bypass the wards in the middle of the night and stole several of Her artefacts. The one named Harry Potter defeated several of my priests and killed two," the High Priest relayed the information to the Goa'uld that Bastet had watching over Earth, Narasimha.

"And did you reveal Our Lady's plans?" Narasimha asked in his deep voice, his eyes flashing brightly in the dimply lit ship.

"No. The protections that Our Lady provided for our minds worked as she said that they would," declared the High Priest loyally. "Not even their strongest truth serum was able to betray us," pride at the power of his Goddess evident in his tone.

"Good," said the Goa'uld, "and you do not believe that they have any reason to suspect that Our Lady has been to this planet?"

"No. I am of the opinion that they believe these relics left behind from the time before the Unbelievers rebelled."

"Very good, very good indeed. Our Lady will be most pleased, Priest. Be wary though. The Unbelievers may send others to watch over you, do nothing out of the ordinary and remain suspicious of any unfamiliar faces," warned Narasimha.

"Our Lady's plans are entering the critical stage," he informed the High Priest. "By the new year Our Lady will bring forth the wrath of the Gods upon this planet, and then you shall be honoured above all others.."

The High Priest smiled in wicked delight, he was very much looking forward to serving Bastet as governor of Earth. Narasimha smirked as he waved a hand at the communications orb, deactivating it. The human had no idea just what serving Bastet would entail, but it was not his place to enlighten the fool.

Instead he powered up the ship and set coordinates for Bubastis. Bastet would want to know what was going on, after all.

The ship created a hyperspace window and rushed off, nobody on Earth caught the action and they remained woefully ignorant of what was to come.

**Author's Note: **One final thing folks. I'm going to go through and re-edit some of the older chapters for three reasons. One, the grammar could be better. Two, I'm very absentminded and keep forgetting to put in pieces of the story. I've made a good outline now though, so hopefully that'll fix that issue. And thirdly, I'm not very happy with some of the characterization or lack thereof. It won't change the story drastically, but hopefully will make it significantly better.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harry Potter or Stargate, I make no money off of either and am simply writing this for my own enjoyment.

**Author's Note: **And here we have one for the SG-1 fans, with brief appearances from Sam and Daniel and a mention of a certain Jaffa. Concerning the ending of this chapter I'll just say this, this ain't SG-1 and Harry isn't Jack O'Neill. Keep that in mind.

**Gateway of Mysteries**

**2002 A.D. – September 30**

**Base Camp, Science & Archaeological Expedition **

**Planet: Velona**

"Right," said a completely confused Harry Potter. "So it blows stuff up then, yeah?"

"Well, yes," the muggle archaeologist, Dr. Daniel Jackson, admitted. "But I don't think we should go around trying to blow anything up until we know more about what blew this planet up."

"I'm not sure we should even be trying to use it then," said the head of the scientific team, a former NASA scientist named Samantha Carter. "At least not until we can come up with a safer way to transfer power from the Naquadah Generator to the device."

"Otherwise it explodes?" Harry asked.

"Possibly Sir."

"Honestly Dr. Carter, you really don't need to call me 'Sir', this isn't the air force," he reminded the blonde muggle once again. With the exception of the various heads of departments and such, things were pretty laid back in the SEDP. Nobody on Harry's team called him 'Sir' despite him being the leader, and he didn't really want any of them to do so. Especially Ron and Hermione, which would have just been weird.

Besides, Harry and his team were only there babysitting the muggle science expedition on this planet as part of their punishment for screwing things up in Egypt.

"Right, sorry si...Potter," apparently some old habits were hard to break.

"Harry's fine. The only people who call me Potter are my superiors and people who don't like me." At the annoyed look from Hermione however, Harry decided to get things going back in their original direction. "So you and our little Orbanian friends want more time to create a safer way of transferring power to the device?" The little Orbanians in question scowled at Harry, obviously not liking being called little.

"Yes, uh, Harry. If we try to do it now we risk damaging the device as well as potentially harming anybody working on it. Furthermore Sir, Harry, if we powered it right now the device would be required to release that power."

"So we'd have to use it?" asked Hermione.

"Exactly. We can't experiment with powering the device until we're absolutely certain that we're ready to test it, and I don't think we should do that until we know more about what it will do." Harry nodded, that made a whole lot of sense to him.

"Okay. Do you think you can figure out what happened here Daniel?" The archaeological team had been on the planet for the past week with SET-One babysitting them. During that time Harry and Daniel Jackson had become friends. He was a good guy who sometimes reminded Harry of Hermione, though perhaps slightly less quarrelsome than his bushy haired friend.

He'd also met Jackson's wife, Sha're, whom Daniel had met while on a similar expedition on the first planet that they ever visited, Abydos. In fact, Sha're had been a gift of sorts to Daniel from the leader of the small mining village on the planet. A fact that had set Hermione off on one of her never ending rants until Niklas finally grew tired of listening and stupefied her. Now she gave both Daniel and Niklas a dirty glare everytime she saw them.

The fact that Sha're was more than happy with her husband didn't seem to register with Hermione, which to Harry was one of the bigger differences between Hermione and Daniel.

"Well," said Daniel, "that's what we've been trying to do for the last week."

"Right, of course. Any leads at all?" Harry asked hopefully. He really wanted to discover an awesome alien space gun of some sort, as every technological discovery he and his team had made so far had been rather mundane.

"Well, no, not really," admittedly the archaeologist. "I mean we know that they used it to defeat an enemy from the sky, I assume that means the Goa'uld. The ones who used it were hailed as heroes but then something happened."

"It's possible that the manner in which the device worked had some sort of unforeseen side effect," Carter theorized.

"Or maybe the Goa'uld came back in greater numbers and bloody pissed?" offered Ron.

"Or that."

"Right, well look around some more Daniel. I'm sure there must be something around here that gives some clue. Dr. Carter, see if you can decipher just what caused all this destruction. You should be able to tell if it was natural or not, at least." Both scientists nodded and went on their way, taking the other members of their teams with them.

"This is boring," Ron stated matter of factly as soon as they were all gone.

"Yeah, well, it won't be so boring if we find some super weapon that can protect Earth from any potential alien invasion, will it?"

"No," the redhead admitted. "I bloody hope we can use it. It'd be nice to find something interesting for once."

Harry nodded in agreement, "Yeah, it's annoying that everybody else finds the cools stuff."

"What?" asked Hermione. "Would you like to find a device that changes your gender like Neville did?"

"You know, that could have been kind of cool," said Ron somewhat wistfully.

"What?" asked Harry as everybody stared at Ron. "Is there something we ought to know about you Ron?"

"What? No, no! I'm just saying, you know, for like day it could be kind of cool. I mean, it wasn't permanent, Neville's back to normal and all. I just, you know, I thought it could be interesting."

"You're an idiot," Imhotep stated bluntly before getting up and leaving the tent that they were in.

"Wanker," grumbled Ron.

"Why would you want to be a woman?" Hermione asked, still confused. Ron just shrugged, looking immensely embarrassed by the whole thing now.

Deciding to get off the subject of Ron's secret fetishes Harry brought up the subject of another encounter Neville had. "What about those robot clones Neville and his team ran across? What did Neville name his clone again?"

"Meville," Hermione supplied. "He named his android clone Meville."

Ron snorted, "Meville, honestly. Meville?"

"It's Nev mate, he's never been the most creative bloke. I'm surprised he didn't name it Trevor," said Harry.

"Anyway," said Hermione who obviously wanted to steer the conversation in another direction. "You two could at least make an effort to appear as though you're listening to Dr. Carter's explanations."

"Why? We won't understand any of it anyway," Ron said honestly.

"Yeah, she's even worse than you when she gets going," stated Harry, to which Ron could only nod in agreement.

"You could at least try not to look like you're daydreaming," Hermione said bossily, giving them both disapproving looks. With that Hermione got up and left the tent haughtily, off to do whatever Hermione does for fun.

"Barmy." Ron looked over at Harry, "So what were you thinking?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing, nothing."

"Right," he snorted in disbelief, "I was thinking of her and Hermione debating the merits of science and magic."

Harry stared at Ron, even Niklas opened his eyes from his seat on the other side of the room and looked at him dubiously.

"What? Well, there may have been a pit of Jell-O and a lack of clothes involved."

"Jell-O?" asked Harry.

"Yeah!" Ron said enthusiastically. "I heard some muggles talking about it, sounds wicked."

"Right mate, I think I can do without hearing about Hermione and Jell-O," to which Ron just sat back and grinned. "Honestly mate, what _are_ you and Hermione up to, anyway?"

"What?"

"I mean are you or are you not a couple? It's getting bloody confusing." Nobody was really sure anymore if the two were together or not, even the rest of the Weasley's were unsure.

Ron shrugged. "You know Hermione, she's mental. She doesn't want to be too serious or anything until we're older. I told her, I said 'Blimey Hermione, it's not like I'm saying we ought to get married right now!' but she just says that there is too much else going on to be in a serious relationship."

"Too much going on?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Yeah, I know right? First it was the House Elves and other magical creatures, and now it's this." Ron shook his head bemusedly, "I honestly have no idea how her brain works."

"Does anybody?" Harry asked, to which they both simply shrugged. Deciding that some fresh air would be good Harry got up and said, "Hey mate, I'm gonna go check out Carter, see you later yeah?"

Ron grinned, "Yeah, check out Carter, got you." Harry just rolled his eyes at Ron as the redhead pulled out a magazine of some sort to entertain himself with.

The tent that Harry and his team stayed in was not too far from where the strange device was located. Daniel and his wife Sha're were not too far away, they were examining some odd writings.

When Harry entered the building that housed the device he immediately did three things. He first called out for Daniel and sent out a Patronus to Ron before raising up a detection ward. The reason he did all of that was the fact that Samantha Carter was laying on the ground unconscious. Harry quickly used a diagnoses spell to determine that she was simply unconscious.

"Harry? What happened?" asked Daniel when he came in. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, just knocked out." Harry looked around suspiciously but didn't see anybody, and the detection spell he had called up before had not detected any life forms and he knew that the building only had one way in or out. "Daniel, did you see anybody?"

"No, there has been nobody but Sha're and myself since we got here. Except for Dr. Carter," he amended.

"Right, then we're either dealing with an invisible person or something else," Harry didn't like either, especially if whomever did it can avoid magical detection.

"Or maybe they haven't left?" said Daniel.

"Maybe."

"Harry what's going on?"

"Ron? Dunno, did you get...Hermione, come here I need you to see if you can figure out what happened to Dr. Carter." Hermione had just come rushing into the room with Niklas right behind her. The lone witch of the group was the best trained in medical spells and Harry hoped that she'd be able to find something that his very basic diagnoses charm hadn't found.

"It looks like, like she received some sort of...shock," Hermione frowned in thought. "But that can't be can it? The device has no power."

"No, it doesn't. What kind of shock?" Harry asked.

"Hmmm," Hermione ran a few more spells over the unconscious blonde who was glowing blue from the spells. "I don't know Harry, it doesn't seem to be a physical shock or anything. More of an emotional and mental shock."

"Like she saw something that scared her half to death?" asked Ron.

"No, not that kind of shock. She doesn't show any signs of distress, at least not of the nature of being highly frightened."

"So..." Harry was trying to piece it together, "it's like something caused her brain to go into overload? But it wasn't anything physical or anything...what? Perhaps nothing she saw at all but maybe a spell or something?"

"No, it's definitely not magic or any other sort of weapon. It wasn't any sort of gas or toxin either. If I had to hazard a guess I'd say she was never aware of whatever caused it. Maybe we should wake her up?" Harry nodded and cast a spell, immediately Dr. Carter awoke and looked around in bewilderment.

"What happened?" she asked in surprise.

"We were hoping you could tell us Dr. Carter," said Harry.

"I don't know. One minute I was working on my laptop and the next I'm waking up here." Harry frowned at that and looked back to Niklas who shook his head. An idea popped into Harry's head and with a swirl of his wand he cast a charm to detect any sort of energy related anomaly.

"There's something here," Harry noted to the others. "Some sort of energy. Like, a huge bundle of energy hovering over there," he nodded towards the far side of the room.

"Energy?" asked Sam. "Magical or...?"

"No, mundane, though I don't know what it is exactly," he said.

"Is it intelligent?" Hermione asked. "I mean, did it attack Dr. Carter or was it just, I don't know, released somehow?" That was the million galleon question in Harry's mind.

"Dunno," Harry admitted, "maybe we should ask it if it wants to talk?"

"Hello?" Ron called out uncertainly.

"Brilliant Ron," Harry commented sarcastically. "Nick? Any way to, uh, catch this...thing?" The large warding expert looked deep in thought but eventually shook his head.

"Dr. Carter are you sure you were doing nothing that would release any form of energy?"

"Certain Sir," she said.

"Alright then, and we didn't notice anything at any other time we've been here, right?" The others all nodded. "So then we've got to assume that whatever this is was likely already here, yeah?"

"But why would it attack Dr. Carter? Now?" Hermione asked.

"Don't know? Did it even attack her?" the others didn't have an answer for that. "Is there no way to get it to, I don't know, show it's self?" His question was answered by the energy thing itself.

All of the the sudden the area where Harry had detected the energy anomaly began glowing bright white. It seemed to have a human face amongst all the glowiness and eventually seemed to morph into the body of a human.

"I'm sorry if I had scared you," said the being, looking at Carter. "It was not my intention."

"That's alright mate," said Harry, glancing towards Carter who gave a nod and a reassuring smile towards the 'man'. "What's your name?" he asked, instead of 'what are you' like he very much wanted.

"When I was in physical form, I was known as Orlin," the being said.

"When you were in physical form? So you weren't always...you know," Harry gestured vaguely to the spot in the air where it had been hovering.

"No. I once looked liked this," he gestured to his body. "That was before I ascended."

"Ascended?" Harry repeated. "Er, well, congratulations? Uh, what is ascending?"

The being seemed to study Harry and the others for a few moments before answering. "My kind were once very much like you, however we eventually evolved to the point where we could shed our physical bodies and live as pure energy on a higher plane of existence."

"Oh, well, that's...yeah, that's interesting mate," Harry looked around to make sure that everybody else was as lost as he was.

"Your people?" Hermione asked. "Did you live on this planet?"

"No, I'm not from Velona," said Orlin. Harry had to think for a moment to realise that Velona was the planet they were currently on. "My people came from elsewhere."

"Well, what were you doing here?" Hermione persisted. "If you don't mind my asking, I mean," she added hastily when Harry shot her a 'do-not-insult-the-glowy-energy-being' look.

"I was banished here by the Others as a form of punishment," Orlin stated perfectly calmly. Harry and the others looked slightly apprehensive at that but it seemed Daniel had a light bulb go off.

"You helped them build this weapon, didn't you?" he half asked and half stated.

Orlin nodded in reply. "One of the foremost laws of our kind is that we must not interfere with the lower planes of existence."

"But what happened?" Harry asked curiously.

"Velona was being attacked by the Goa'uld, I helped them build this weapon to defend themselves," he stated.

"And it worked, didn't it?" asked Daniel. "But what happened after that? The Goa'uld didn't return." The last part was stated as if it were a well known fact.

"No, they did not," Orlin agreed. "Soon after their victory the Velonans made plans to use the weapon again."

Even Harry could tell where that was going. "For offensive purposes instead of defensive?" he asked.

"Yes, and that is when the Others stepped in."

Harry didn't like that, because if he was right then these glowy energy folks were extremely powerful. "They did all of this?" he asked, gesturing outside to the destruction that was once a city.

"Yes." Everybody shared a glance at that piece of information.

"Oh!" said Hermione excitedly. "Did they somehow use a powerful storm to cause destruction?" Harry and the others looked at her in confusion, but Orlin seemed to understand.

"I suppose you could put it like that, yes."

"Hermione?" asked Harry questioningly.

"Er, sorry Harry. When we were trying to figure out what happened earlier the data seemed to suggest that there was some sort of very powerful electrical storm that did significant damage." Harry nodded and gestured for her to continue, wondering why he hadn't been informed. "Well, of course we weren't sure when it occurred exactly or if it was in any way related to the destruction of the world. We were trying to figure that out."

"Right," said Harry. "Okay, uh, Orlin. So these 'others', they destroyed an entire civilization just because you gave them information on how to build this weapon?"

"Yes," said Orlin, looking over at the device sadly.

"Right, and then they banished you here?" Orlin gave the affirmative again. "But why did you, er, attack Dr. Carter?"

Orlin again turned towards the muggle scientist, this time with an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry if I hurt you, that was not my intention." Turning to the room at large he explained, "We have a way to communicate at a higher level, a sort of sharing of essence." Orlin again turned again to Carter, "I'm sorry you passed out, I believe it was because you were not prepared for the experience. But I did learn much about you."

Harry cut in here before he could continue any further, "Uh, don't you think that was a bit...invasive?" he asked.

"Yes," Orlin agreed. "I've been alone here on Velona for hundreds of years," he explained, "you're the first living beings I've seen in all of that time and I was curious." Harry supposed he could understand Orlin a bit, it would get insanely lonely living like that.

"Why Dr. Carter?" he asked. "Why not me or one of the others."

"I was not sure how your, I think you call it magic?" Harry nodded at the question. "I was not sure how your magic would react to the attempt. Also I was intrigued by Dr. Carter and wished to learn more about her."

"And what did you learn?" asked Carter.

"That your spirit is pure, that you are a good person and as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside," replied Orlin. Harry had to give the guy credit, he was good.

Ron, who was standing just behind Harry at this point, whispered "Competition mate?"

Orlin continued on however, "I believe that a human can handle the experience, I think you just need to be... receptive."

Orlin eventually managed to convince them to allow him to try again, with Sam's permission. It apparently worked too, though Dr. Carter seemed hard pressed to accurately describe the experience. They talked with Orlin some more about his people, merely learning that they had evolved both physically and mentally to the point where they chose to ascend thousands of years ago.

Orlin did mention that his race were once part of a great alliance of four races along with the Furlings, the Nox and the Asgard. When he mentioned the race called Furlings he sent a most perplexing look towards Harry and the other wizards and witch in the room, though he did not go into detail on any of the races.

The following day Harry and his team were called back to Hermes Base by command.

"...and we would like for you to try and communicate with the symbiote," said the man in charge of organizing missions through Hermes. Viktor Kolarov was from the Ukraine and was in charge of making sure that teams gated to the right address for their mission as well as had the correct supplies when they left Hermes Base. If a team gated back in need of something then it was up to him to come up with a way of supplying it.

"Haven't we acquired other symbiotes before?" asked Harry.

"Yes, but they were either in no condition to be used as such, were deemed to dangerous to attempt, or were no longer alive. We also believe that this symbiote, a Goa'uld Queen, may be purposely tampering with her offspring which is causing the current problems for the Pangarans."

"So you want me to ask her nicely how to fix it?" Harry asked dubiously.

Kolarov shrugged, "If she is willing to divulge such information then that would be welcome, but we are not overly concerned with it."

"Um, okay," said Harry, "so then what do you want?"

"First and foremost, to see if a Parseltongue can indeed speak with a symbiote. Secondly to learn all that we can from the symbiote."

"And you think the Goa'uld Queen would be willing to help us in some way?" asked Hermione.

"From the ruins that the Pangarans found we have been able to discover that the Queen in question, Egeria, had betrayed the Goa'uld in some way and was imprisoned."

"So you're hoping she might be willing to help us? For retribution?" guessed Harry.

"Exactly."

**2002 A.D. – October 2**

**Tretonin Production Facility**

**Planet: Pangar**

The Goa'uld Queen, Egeria, had been taken from the tank that the Pangarans had put her in and secured by a number of spells to prevent her from attacking any of them. Harry could hear faint words coming from the Goa'uld but they were not clear enough for him to understand.

"Alright, here goes nothing," said Harry.

"_Hello Egeria, can you understand me?"_ Harry asked as he focused his complete attention on the Goa'uld. The symbiote, which had been having around looking for an escape suddenly stopped and stared directly at Harry.

"_You...can speak?"_ it said weakly.

"_Yes. I am Harry Potter of the...Tau'ri,"_ Harry informed the symbiote. _"You are Egeria?"_

"_Yes, I am Egeria, former consort of Ra and mother of the Tok'ra,"_ the symbiote informed him. Now that certainly got his attention.

"Uh, guys? This Egeria says she was the mother of the Tok'ra and consort of Ra," Harry told the others in the room.

"The Tok'ra!" exclaimed Hermione. "Well that would explain how she betrayed the Goa'uld, since they're supposed to be the opposite of the Goa'uld. If what they told us is to be believed."

Harry nodded and turned back to the symbiote. _"Mother of the Tok'ra? What do you mean by that?" _Harry asked.

The Goa'uld almost seemed sad when she spoke to Harry. _"Long ago I came to the realisation that enslaving another sentient species and forcefully using them as hosts was wrong. I then spawned a great many young with a new philosophy, one of co-existence with their willing host. I had hoped that they would defy the Goa'uld and free the humans and Jaffa."_

Harry nodded, _"We met a few Tok'ra not long back..."_ he admitted. _"But uh, we didn't really hit it off to be honest,"_ he said apologetically.

"_So the Tok'ra still live?"_ Egeria asked with a hint of hope in her weakened voice.

"_Err, yeah, they're still out there, you know, defying Ra and whatever it is you lot do."_

"_That pleases me,"_ said the Tok'ra Queen.

"_Uh, if you don't mind my asking, how did you get, you know, here?"_ Harry asked.

"_After I spawned the Tok'ra I knew that ultimately if they were to be successful they would need some military might. I had none, as Ra allowed me only a few smaller vessels and a few dozen Jaffa to protect me. I needed to find another that had the military strength to help us stand against the System Lords,"_ explained Egeria. Harry supposed he could understand that, there was only so much that could be done without some sort of force behind them.

"_I eventually chose to sound out my sister, Bastet,"_ she said. Harry's eyes went wide at hearing that little tidbit of information.

"_Bastet?"_ he asked, _"going by our interactions with her I'm going to guess that she turned you down?"_

"_Yes. I had hoped that Bastet would understand, that her compassionate nature would allow for her to see the Goa'uld Empire as I did. With the Claws of Bast and the immense resources of her core worlds the Tok'ra could have made serious headway in defeating the Goa'uld."_ Harry wasn't sure what she was talking about with regards to Bastet's compassionate nature. She seemed to him to be the same as any other Goa'uld System Lord.

"_At that time Bastet was embroiled in a war with Sekhmet who had usurped her position amongst the System Lords. I had hoped that her dissatisfaction with Ra and the System Lords along with her natural compassion would make her an ally."_ Harry could sort of see her point. _"Alas, when she said no I then feared that she meant to use this knowledge as a means of gaining favour amongst the System Lords."_ Harry figured that was probably the sort of thing Bastet, or any Goa'uld, would do.

"_Instead I chose to openly defy Ra myself, declaring myself the Queen Mother of the Tok'ra. Ra had the Ashrak hunt me down afterwards, and imprisoned me here."_ Harry nodded in understanding, she wanted to control the time and place of the big reveal instead of being surprised by Bastet.

"_Right, which brings us to when the Pangarans found you..."_ Harry trailed off at the end to allow the Egeria to finish.

"_Indeed,"_ stated the Goa'uld Queen. _"When first they found me I was unaware of how much time had passed, I did not know who these people were or if they were friend or foe. When I realised what they were attempting to use me for I tried to create a flaw in my young in the hopes that they would prove useless to the Pangarans. Sadly it did not, they only increased production to compensate."_

Harry nodded, despite hissing in parseltongue he thought that he could hear a trace of sadness when she spoke of that. _"And now you're dying, yeah?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Is it at all possible that you could help us cure the Pangarans? If you created the flaw then surely you know how to fix it. Right?"_ Harry wasn't sure if she'd be willing to help the Pangarans or not after what they did to her. He knew that he'd probably not be too willing.

"_I will help them Harry Potter, it shall be my final act."_ Harry was pleasantly surprised by the Goa'uld Queen and was beginning to think that maybe these Tok'ra weren't so bad, if they were anything like their old Queen.

"Okay, Egeria is willing to help find an antidote. She created a flaw in her offspring hoping that the Pangarans would stop their experimentation. She is willing to help us correct it though, as her final act she said." Hermione's eyes lit up at that and she had an expression that Harry associated with her having some crazy plan that'll set everything right.

"Harry, you're going to need to stay so that you can translate for the scientists right?" Harry nodded, being the only one who could speak with Egeria he sort of had to.

"I need to go back to Earth!" she said.

"But why?"

"I have an idea but I don't know if it's possible. I mean, I think it might be, hopefully it is, and if it is then it could be huge. But I need to speak with on Earth," she rambled on excitedly before exclaiming, "Oh no!" The rest of the team looked at the bushy haired woman in complete bewilderment.

"Uh, Hermione?" Ron asked uncertainly.

"I just realised, I need to go to Coeus! I think that's where they are, they were supposed to have moved there this month I mean," Harry had no idea who she was talking about, but by this point he was used to her antics.

"Right right, fine. Go ahead and go Hermione. Take Ron with you?" Harry looked at Ron who gave a nod and had to run to follow Hermione back to the gate.

"Ya know, that chick's a few fries short of a happy meal," noted one of the members from SET-Four, an American wizard named Jake Belk if Harry remembered correctly.

"You don't know the half of it man," said Imhotep.

Harry spent the rest of the afternoon translating what Egeria said for the scientists and healers so that they could come up with a way to save the Pangarans. They all seemed optimistic that a cure could be found in time to save everybody.

Hermione didn't return until the following morning, with Ron and several healers in tow.

"Hermione?" he asked when she came up to where he and the others were enjoying a Pangaran breakfast.

"We think we might be able to save her!" she said happily.

"Uh, okay. Who?"

"Egeria!"

"What?" he asked in surprise. He hadn't really given that much thought and wondered why they would want to save Egeria. He could understand Hermione, she was always trying to save various creatures, but what reasoning did the people in charge have?

"Think about it Harry, Egeria is a very old Goa'uld, she must have loads of knowledge that could help us," Hermione explained. Harry supposed he could see her point. "Plus, she's already defied the System Lords once so she'd probably be willing to help us if we just asked." Harry pondered that and decided that there was a very good chance that she would help them if asked.

"Then, if we can save her, if we can find the Tok'ra again then we could form an alliance with them. I'm sure they'd be willing to help us if we saved their Queen. We'd finally have an ally that really knows the Goa'uld and has fought against them for centuries." Harry had to give her credit for the idea, if it worked then the Tok'ra could be a very big help in protecting Earth.

"Not to mention Egeria's aid could be invaluable to developing a synthetic form of this Tretonin," said one of the muggle scientists. Harry raised an eyebrow in surprise, he didn't know why they'd want to make a synthetic form of a drug that destroys their immune system. He could understand the benefits but the fact that you have to take it so regularly far outweighed them in his opinion.

"What is this?" demanded one of the Pangarans. "You want to take her so that you can make the drug for yourselves?" he asked looking scandalized.

"So that we may work on developing a synthetic form of the drug, yes. It would not be for us, however."

"Then who for?" the Pangaran demanded forcefully.

"This drug offers us a way to further cripple the Goa'uld's power, by taking away their Jaffa. Without their Jaffa armies they would be significantly weaker." Harry thought he understood the thinking behind that. As it was right now any Jaffa who left the Goa'uld was a dead man as they needed a symbiote in order to survive. The only way to get symbiotes was of course from the Goa'uld or from killing other Jaffa.

With Tretonin the alliance would be able to offer Jaffa their freedom from the Goa'uld, complete with not having to rely on a symbiote. He thought he recalled hearing something about SET-Two being caught by a Goa'uld, Apophis if he remembered right, and escaping with the help of a renegade Jaffa.

Once the muggle scientist was able to convince the Pangarans that they weren't simply trying to steal their cure-all drug they were able to head back home. As soon as they arrived on Hermes Base one of the guides greeted them.

"Dr. Jørgensen, your team will be held here temporarily so that we may ensure that the specimen is not dangerous. You will then be allowed to return to Coeus Base." The guide led them through the usual bizarre series or corridors before stopping at a door and ushering the muggle scientists inside. He then led Harry's team back to the Stargate so that they could gate home.

"I am to inform you that your team is to report to Director Gilmour immediately, Mr. Potter."

"Why?" Harry asked curiously. Surely they hadn't screwed anything up yet.

"I do not know, I suggest you report to Director Gilmour and find out," he said as he led them into the Embarkation Room.

"I don't care how many times we go through it, that place will always be completely mental to me," Ron said as they exited the Stargate.

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "Notice everybody who works there is barmy too? Can't say I'm surprised though." Ron shook his head in firm agreement with Harry's assessment as they made their way to meet with the director.

"Oh, Mr. Potter," said Director Gilmour's secretary, "if you'd go to Conference Room Two the Director will be with you shortly."

As soon as Gilmour entered the room fifteen minutes later Harry knew this wasn't going to be a good day.

"Potter, I'm sorry that you had to go to Pangar so quickly after returning from Velona, but I'm afraid I can't give you a rest now either."

"What is it Sir?" he asked, sharing a look with his companions. They were all wondering what was wrong now that they didn't get at least a week off as was normal.

"You guys are our experts," he paused briefly to reconsider that statement, "or as close as we've got anyway, on the Goa'uld Bastet." Harry wasn't at all sure what qualified him and his team for being anything close to experts on Bastet except that they're the only ones who have seen her.

Gilmour waved his wand and several images appeared on the wall behind him. They weren't the best quality but they appeared to show Bastet's court on Bubastis and what looked like images of Bastet, though it was difficult to tell as you could mainly only see the top of her head. What was surprising to Harry and the others was Bastet's condition.

"We've had a team on Bubastis scouting Bastet for the past six weeks, however recently they noticed her acting strangely. Usually she would hold court in the middle of the afternoon and almost always kept her Sphinx palace opened up to the outside. Recently however she has become very recluse, and now we believe we know why," he gestured to the pregnant Bastet behind him.

"So Bastet is...pregnant?" Ron observed cleverly.

"So it would seem Mr. Weasley. The team were lucky to get this picture of her about three weeks ago, and it seems that something is afoot. What we want you to do is infiltrate and observe Bastet, find out what she is up to."

"But sir," Hermione interjected, "How can that be? When we saw Bastet last she most certainly did not look pregnant, but in that picture it looks like she's about ready to give birth."

"We believe that she is using the technology taken from Argos to accelerate the process."

"Oh, of course! That would be why she invaded using the cover of Pelops attacking one of her ships, she wanted to get that technology to speed up her pregnancy," Hermione theorized enthusiastically.

"Yes Ms. Granger, that is what we believe as well. It is also likely that she intends to grow the child more quickly using the same means. At this time we don't know if this is because she wants the child for a new host or if she simply wants another witch or wizard to do her bidding." Harry wasn't personally sure which option would be worse for them.

"So you want us to infiltrate and find out what she's up to and why?" Harry deduced.

"Yes, and eliminate the child and any other magical beings including Bastet if the opportunity presents itself and you believe it necessary." Harry stared at the Director for a few moments.

"You want us to assassinate Bastet if we get the chance?" he asked.

"A Goa'uld with magic is too dangerous for us to ignore, especially if she's attempting to spread that magic even more amongst the Goa'uld." Harry didn't know what to think of that. Hermione seemed to have been having similar thoughts as she voiced one of his primary concerns.

"You want us to kill a baby?" she exclaimed.

"We believe it highly likely that the child will have been aged significantly by the time you arrive," Gilmour assured.

"That doesn't matter," Hermione stated emphatically. "It's still a child no matter how much it's been artificially aged!"

Imhotep however agreed with the Director, "Granger this isn't just some child, it'll be a Goa'uld most likely and therefore with a long memory of murder, torture and domination of other species. Hardly an innocent little boy or girl." Next to Imhotep Harry could see Niklas nod in agreement.

"Mr. Neferankh is correct Ms. Granger, the nature of the child and what it is to be used for negates the fact that it may still be a child. Ultimately it is a weapon, a dangerous weapon that we cannot allow to continue to exist. Might I remind you that the fate of our whole world is on the line."

"Oh? The child is a weapon?" Hermione said hysterically. Harry exchanged a look with Ron, but neither knew what to say to calm their friend down. "Well that changes everything then doesn't it? I guess that means it was okay for Voldemort to try and kill Harry as a baby then? It was war after all and Harry was a threat to him!"

The Harry in question decided to intervene.

"Hermione! Calm down," if her death glare was anything to go by then she would not be calming down anytime soon. "Look, we'll go there and keep an eye on things and come up with a plan once we see what's going on, okay? He said only if we deem it necessary, right? Don't you trust my judgement Hermione?" She was still glaring at Director Gilmour, who looked completely nonplussed about the whole thing, but nodded nonetheless.

"Very well," said Gilmour, "you'll have three days to prepare Potter." Harry nodded and began making mental notes of everything they would need to do. "Ms. Granger, if you take that tone with me again the consequences will be most severe. Dismissed. Potter, I'd like to speak with you."

Harry hung back as the others filed out, hoping Hermione's behaviour hadn't gotten him into too much trouble.

"Mr. Potter, I did not approve of Ms. Granger's participation in this program and still do not. This is her last warning, if she ever defies me or any other members of this program including Mr. Neferankh she will be dismissed from the program and her memory wiped. Do I make myself clear?" Harry gulped and nodded, not wanting to see his brainy friend undergo such a major memory wipe as it would likely have harsh side effects. He'd certainly have to have a talk with her soon.

**2002 A.D. – October 6**

**The Ring Temple**

**Planet: Bubastis – Homeworld of the Goa'uld Bastet**

As Harry and his team stepped out of the Stargate and onto the planet Bubastis for the first time they found themselves in a dark and cool stone temple. There were a number of Jaffa peering about suspiciously but they seemed unable to find any signs of danger when the Stargate deactivated and likely assumed it was simply some sort of message.

SET-One quickly made their way to a secluded spot that the reconnaissance team had picked out for a rendezvous. They would speak with the team that had been keeping an eye on the Goa'uld before eventually making their way to Bastet's palace to keep an even closer eye on her.

Harry was somewhat taken aback by the coolness of the planet. The whole of the planet Bubastis was covered in desert and lacked even a small lake upon it's surface. The average high temperature for the planet was around one-hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit and though it did cool some at night it was still far too warm for Harry's tastes.

Bastet however seemed to have used some form of technology that kept the areas around the Stargate and her temples nice and cool. If he had to guess Harry would probably put the temperature in the mid seventies and with a slight breeze. All in all far nicer than he thought it would be, of course he should have expected that a Goa'uld like Bastet would not allow herself to suffer through such ghastly weather.

He somehow doubted that the slaves forced to work in the Naquadah mines were afforded such luxury.

Once they arrived at the rendezvous Mike Edwards – the team leader for SET-Nine – dropped the wards that continued to conceal them.

"Hey Potter," greeted the short American. "You might have noticed when you came in, but something serious is going on." Harry hadn't really noticed anything, though now that he thought about it there was a distinct lack of ships in the area.

"The ha'taks?" Harry asked.

"Left this morning," Edwards informed them. "Not only that but we've had appearances from nearly all of Bastet's underlords. Maahes was here but he seemed to have vanished again. Aker, Neith, Mekhit, Apedemak and Tefnut are all lounging around in Bastet's court. We've also seen Miuty, Mafdet and Asthartet make appearances but they've disappeared into Bastet's three new ha'taks that just finished construction last week."

"Wait," Hermione interrupted, "Miuty, Mafdet and Asthartet were all here at the same time?"

"Yep, saw all three of them ring up to separate ships 'bout three hours ago."

"That's odd," she observed. "Why would Bastet have all three of her caretakers on Bubastis?"

The triumvirate of Miuty, Mafdet and Asthartet governed Bastet's personal domains of Bubastis, Per-Bast and Tell Basta. From what they had learned over the years it was very rare for Bastet to call all three of them to one location as she generally would only use the one located on whatever planet she resided at that time. If she needed somebody for a more delicate mission she would use her 'son' Maahes.

As best anybody could figure the title of 'son' was more honorary than a sign of any affection towards the Underlord. Each of the Underlords that served Bastet was in fact the offspring of her symbiote and thus technically all were sons and daughters. Maahes however had been able to distinguish himself and become her most trusted Underlord.

"We think she's likely gearin' up for an attack," Edwards said. "We don't know where or why, that's what ya'll are for."

"Alright, how are we getting in?" Harry asked. Her Great Temple looked rather shut up from what Harry saw of it after arriving.

"Portkey," said the American as he produced a short bit of rope. "It's set up to drop you in the far left corner. We've used the stealth version of course so nobody will know you've arrived but you'd better get set up quick as that room is full of Goa'uld and they'll detect you in no time."

The stealth portkey was a recent development that aside from dropping people at a location like a normal portkey, was able to silence and cast a notice-me-not charm around the area where it deposited them. The charms only lasted for a couple of minutes however.

"Brilliant," Harry said as he took hold of the rope.

"Be on the lookout man, we don't know where Bastet has gone off to except that she's likely in the temple somewhere." Harry gave the man a nod as he offered the rope to all the others after making sure that they had all prepared for what to do immediately after landing. Once the others had taken hold and were ready to go Edwards said the activation phrase and Harry landed on his arse as usual.

Niklas quickly started setting up the various wards and enchantments to conceal their presence while Ron and Hermione set up everything else. Harry kept a keen eye on all the other occupants in the room to make sure that none of them noticed anything, which thankfully they did not. Imhotep studied the Goa'uld to make sure he knew who was who and that they didn't have any surprises.

"Good Nick?" Harry asked when he felt the final wards go into place. The silent Swede nodded.

"Ron, Hermione? Good? Great. Looks like the gang we were expecting Imhotep? Know who the Jaffa are?" he asked the Egyptian.

"Guarding the throne is Relana, it looks like all the other Goa'uld have their First Prime here as well," he observed, gesturing to the various Jaffa who proudly wore the golden symbol of their God or Goddess on their forehead.

"Sounds like this is some sort of war council or something," Harry stated.

"Most likely," Imhotep agreed. "Question is who is she going to war against and why?" Harry didn't have any answers for that. "If she is the one that has been attacking others then it would appear she's ready to show herself as the traitor."

"Or she's going to pounce on the bloke whose been attacking everybody," Ron interjected.

"Or that," Harry conceded. "Or she's just attacking somebody for no particular reason. She and Apophis didn't seem to get along."

Their discussion was cut short however by the arrival of several more Goa'uld. Aside from all three of Bastet's caretakers there was also Pakhet who was one of her more powerful underlings. The twins Bes and Beset arrived very shortly afterwards, both looking quite demented with their ceremonial masks in place.

"Who are we missing?" Harry asked.

"Hert-Ketit-s isn't here, she's Bastet's prison warden and chief torturer but that's not surprising. Our intelligence leads us to believe that she never leaves Hatet unless it's to torture somebody," Imhotep said as he reviewed his notes on everything they knew about Bastet.

"Sounds charming," Hermione said dryly.

"We're also missing Maahes and Bastet herself," Imhotep finished.

"That's all?" Harry asked, receiving an affirmative nod in reply. "Has to be a war council, surely? With the ha'taks missing as well."

Imhotep had just been about to reply when Bastet arrived. She strode out from the curtained area behind her throne with one of her cats in hand, one that reminded Harry strongly of Crookshanks, and seemed to gaze over her minions imperiously. It was hard to tell exactly as she was in full regalia today and thus he couldn't see her face.

Something in the back of Harry's mind tried to make it's self known, some little tidbit of information that seemed to slip away everytime he tried to think on it. He was sure he wasn't forgetting anything too important though, his team members were are well trained and knew exactly what they were supposed to do and would not hesitate to point out anything he'd forgotten.

For a brief moment the glowing eyes of her headdress seemed to peer in their direction before turning back to her assembled Underlords. He hoped she couldn't see them but didn't think it would be possible, they'd spent a lot of time developing all the spells that concealed them in this corner.

He didn't have time to dwell on it however as Bastet began her speech.

"_My loving children," _she said in a smooth and charming voice as she sat upon her throne. _"You join me today on this most auspicious occasion, on this day in which I become the greatest being to ever live in this galaxy. On this day when the System Lords shall crumble before us, begging our mercy."_

She paused then, seemingly letting her words sink in for her guests both known and unknown. When she next spoke Harry could almost see the sadistic smirk that undoubtedly covered her face.

"_How lovely it is that we have additional guests with us today,"_ Harry looked around with a frown as he wondered who else was there. _"In this most important day in their history they are here to witness the birth of a true Goddess whose power will be unmatched by all."_

Harry didn't even have a chance to react when suddenly she raised her right hand and sent a vicious torrent of magic right at them, sending the whole group flying back against the wall. Harry wasn't sure if she dispelled the wards and concealment charms at the same time or did it while they were all dazed, but either way there rose a great gasp from the rest of the rooms occupants as they were revealed. None of the team had a chance to get their bearings quick enough before their wands went flying through the air, landing at her feet.

Harry however had trick up his sleeve, unfortunately before he could get to it he felt himself flying through the air once again. This time, however, he was flying towards Bastet before landing in a conjured chair and being bound in gagged in one quick motion.

"_Well, well, well," _said Bastet. _"What do we have here? Did you think that I would not be able to see through you pathetic attempts at concealment?" _she asked. Harry had honestly hoped as she hadn't given away and sign that she'd noticed them while at Ra's court.

"_This is good however,"_ she said in an oddly happy voice. _"It will make the proceedings much more entertaining."_

As she finished speaking her great Lioness-like golden mask quickly disappeared back into her headdress, leaving nothing but a pair of cat-like black ears atop her head. She was smiling down at them with a malicious sort of glee dancing in her eyes and suddenly Harry recalled what had been nagging him.

Because she wasn't staring down at him, but instead staring directly into the eyes of Imhotep as she grinned most wickedly.

Though Imhotep was gagged like the rest Harry could almost make out his emotional screams as he alternated between shock at seeing his sister and hate of the Goa'uld who took her from him.

"_It seems only proper, after all, that my hosts only remaining family be here for this glorious day," _the other Goa'uld in the room chuckled as Imhotep's screams increased. _"Don't worry dear,"_ she said in such a sweet and loving tone that one could almost be fooled that she was trying to comfort him, _"I am not an unmerciful God. I will give you back your sister before the day is done, I shall have no need of her anymore."_ Bastet gently ran a finger down the man's cheek as she spoke in soft and reassuring tones. Imhotep didn't seem to care what tone she took as he glared hatefully at her though.

"_Maahes!"_ she called out loudly. From behind the throne three figures soon emerged, one was most definitely Maahes as he guided to others into the room, a male and a female. The male had a very smug look on his face as if he were the most important man in the world and even managed to look down disdainfully upon Maahes, who simply smirked and joined the other Underlords. The young girl, probably only a couple of years younger than Harry, did nothing but stare blankly forward with unseeing eyes.

"_Very good my Son," _she said to Maahes, fixing him with what appeared to be an almost genuine smile of delight. _"Do any of you by chance recognize this man?" _Bastet asked of the four humans. None of them recognized him however.

"_Hmmm, a shame, not a friend of yours?"_ she asked as if she would have greatly preferred him to have been known to them. Suddenly Harry had a suspicion of who the man might be. _"My dear Miuty was so kind to bring this specimen back with him after his last trip to your world."_ Harry's suspicion turned out to be correct, the man was one of the Unspeakables that had been taken years ago.

"_I kept the host around in the event that he may prove useful, though I had doubted he would with so much damage to his mind,"_ she smiled kindly at the man whose smugness only seemed to increase. Harry didn't think he'd be looking so pleased with himself if he'd notice the wicked twinkled in Bastet's eyes. _"How wrong I was though, how wrong I was. The host may have been lost, by my beloved lover here did not require him to be of sound mind."_ The man's eyes glowed as if to press home the point that he was a Goa'uld, and he managed to look even more insufferably smug at being called Bastet's lover.

Her Underlords however seemed to have had a better understanding of Bastet than this man however, as they all seemed to be looking on in eager anticipation. The reason became apparent very quickly as she silently pulled out a long dagger from her side as she stood behind the man.

"_Unfortunately," _she said in the same sweet and loving tone, _"he has now outlived his usefulness."_

The man didn't even have time to react as Bastet brought the long dagger against his neck and severed his head, cutting the symbiote in half as well. The body fell down to the floor at her feet but she paid it absolutely no attention.

"_He was able to provide me with this before he was no longer required,"_ she gestured to the girl that had remained standing as if nothing had happened. Harry doubted that she realised anything was happening. What Harry did find interesting was the series of gasps from the assembled Underlords at her proclamation.

Bastet smiled superiorly towards her audience before looking at her captive humans. _"I suppose I shall explain for the less educated amongst us? A Harcesis, a human child of two Goa'uld hosts, inherits the full genetic memory of it's parents and is thus strictly forbidden. That however is insignificant to what else I've done."_ Bastet seemed quite proud of herself as she began to tell them what she's done. Harry couldn't help but wonder why evil people always had to go on and on about how clever they are. Voldemort did the same thing.

"_Over the centuries I have spent a great deal of time studying genetics,"_ she informed them all. _"I also discovered a device left behind by the Gatebuilders that allowed me to manipulate the DNA of a person. I believe Nirrti also has one, though she is a fool and cannot understand such technology as I can."_ Harry really wasn't liking where this was heading, as it was bad enough for Bastet to have a magical host she didn't need to give it any further advantages.

"_It took much time, effort and dedication but eventually I was able to forcefully evolve a human far beyond that of any to exist in this galaxy since the Gatebuilders. I mostly worked on improving the mind of my future host, as our miniature grey friends the Asgard have proven that physical prowess pales in comparison to the power of the mind."_ Harry didn't know what an Asgard was, but right now he didn't care either. He wanted desperately to get out of this but he was bound so tightly that he could hardly move at all.

"_The result of all of this was my new host,"_ she looked over at the still blank faced girl with an adoring expression. _"Superior in every way to my current host, to any Goa'uld host. Soon the System Lords shall bow before me, the Asgard shall be destroyed and the secrets of the Gatebuilders uncovered. Today is the dawn of a new era my children."_

Once she was done talking she stepped over to her genetically altered host and to Harry's surprise kissed her full on the lips. Harry wouldn't have minded watching that, they were both quite beautiful after all, if he hadn't known exactly what was happening.

The body of Isis Neferankh quickly fell to the floor as Bastet took residence inside of her new host. She kept her eyes closed and seemed to be checking to make certain that she was in full control before she opened them. Meanwhile Isis came to and looked around in panic before her eyes found her brother who was struggling valiantly against his bindings.

"Imhotep!" she called out weakly as she tried to crawl over towards him. Bastet's eyes shot open just as Isis had made it over to her brother and she smiled cruelly at the scene, which only made Harry struggle harder to get free of his own bindings. He feared Bastet wanted to make sure her magical powers were still functioning.

"_Excellent,"_ announced the Goa'uld. _"Now you see? I gave you your sister back did I not? I am a kind and merciful Goddess am I not?"_ Imhotep simply glared up at her for a moment before turning his attention back to his sister. _"Unfortunately now I must ensure that all is in good working order."_

With that she raised her hand once again and Isis collapsed in tortured convulsions as if she was experiencing the Cruciatus Curse, which Harry expect she probably was. This simply made all the humans in the room struggle even harder to get free but it was useless.

"_Very good, very good indeed,"_ said Bastet in a pleased tone. She casually waved her hand in Isis' direction and a familiar blast of sickly green magic tore through the air ending Isis Neferankh's pained whimpering forever.

Sitting once more in her throne Bastet gazed out at her audience before locking eyes with Harry himself, a sadistic glee dancing in her jade eyes.

"_Very well, it is time now for us to make our move,"_ she addressed the assembled Goa'uld. Smiling cruelly she informed them, _"Earth will be mine."_

At that moment all the humans stopped struggling and simply stared up at Bastet in shock. Her Underlords all bowed and left to prepare for the invasion of Harry's home. All that Harry could think about was that he hoped that SET-Nine had been eavesdropping too so that somebody could warn Earth.


End file.
